BOSTON UNIVERSITY
LIBRARIES
Mugar Memorial Library
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
AMBROISE PARE
1^
Title Page of .Johnston s Translation
(Firxt edilifin.)
LIFE AND TIMES OF
AMBROISE PARE
{^1510- 1590]
With a J^ew Translation of his Apology and an
Account of his Journeys in Divers Places
BY
Francis R. Packard, m.d.
Editor of Annals of Medical History, ?<lew Yor\
WITH TWENTVTWO TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS, TWENTY'SEVEN FULL PAGE PLATES
AND TWO FOLDED MAPS OF PARIS OF THE i6tH AND I7TH CENTURIES
NEW YORK
PAUL B. HOEBER
1921
Copyright, 1921,
By PAUL B. HOEBER
Printed in the United States of America
I?
TO MY WIFE
TO WHOM I OWE MY INTEREST IN
FRENCH HISTORY
FOREWORD
HE object of this book is to present a
complete English translation of Am-
l broise Fare's famous "Apology," accom-
panied by a brief account of the author's
life, which it is hoped may stimulate readers to a further
study of his works and of the thrilling times in French
history in which he was such an active participant. The
close contact into which the English-speaking peoples
were brought with the French during the late war has
led to an awakening of interest in both England and
America in the history and traditions of our Gallic allies.
Modern France can only be appreciated by a study of
its glorious past, a retrospect which will be found to
amply justify the Frenchman's national pride.
An effort has been made to translate as hterally as
possible the old French in which Pare wrote, the French
of Montaigne and Rabelais. The task has been difficult
because of the many idiomatic expressions, now dis-
used, which abound on every page. Nevertheless
those who are familiar with Florio's translation of Mon-
taigne much prefer its many crudities to the more flow-
ing language of subsequent translations. Johnson, the
vi FOREWORD
earliest English translator of Pare, more nearly ap-
proaches the original text than those who have followed
him, yet his old English is in many instances too crude
for modern readers. It has been well said that trans-
lation may be compared to pouring honey from one jar
into another ; there is always some of the sweetness lost
in the transfer. Therefore the translator would humbly
suggest that those who wish to read the real Pare get
an edition of his works in the original tongue and learn
for themselves what fascinating reading his writings
are.
Francis R. Packard.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
The Life and Times of Ambroise Pare
CHAPTEB PAGE
I 1
Political and Religious Setting of the Times. Available
Literature about Pare.
II 10
Birthplace and Lineal Background. Early Education in
Surgery at Vitre and at the Hotel Dieu, Paris. Com-
mencement of His Career as Military Surgeon.
Ill 27
Campaign Experiences. Admission to the Community of
Barber-Surgeons. Marriage to Jean Mazelin. Life near
the Pont Saint Michel and at Meudon. Possible Acquaint-
anceship with Montaigne. Extraction of a Bullet at Per-
pignan. Autopsy on a Wrestler in Lower Brittainy. In-
terview with Sylvius. The Siege of Boulogne. Studying
Anatomy in Paris. Book on Arquebus Wounds Dedicated
to Henri II. Journey to Germany. Amputation by Lig-
ature. The Siege of Danvilliers. Appointed Surgeon-in-
ordinary to the King. Surgical Experiences at the Siege
of Metz. Captured by the Spaniards at the Siege of
Hesdin.
IV 53
Admission to the College de Saint Come. Controversy
Between the Confrerie de Saint Come and the Faculte de
Medecine. Preparation of a New Edition of His Work
on Anatomy. Military Surgeon at La Fere and Dourlan.
Henri II Killed in Tournament. Appointment as Sur-
geon to Fran9ois II. The Death of Fran9ois II. Appoint-
ment as Surgeon to Charles IX. Incident of the Bezoar
viii CONTENTS
CHAFTXB PAGB
Stone. Publication of a Book on Wounds of the Head
and of the "Anatomie Universelle." The Sieges of Bourges
and Rouen. Discovery of a New Dressing for Wounds.
Appointment as Premier Chirurgien to the King. Publica-
tion of a Work on Surgery. Experiences on the Royal
Progress through France. Smallpox Epidemic.
74
Dressing the Wound of the Count of Mansfield. Success-
ful Treatment of the Due d'Arschot. Attempt to Bring
the Surgeons under the Jurisdiction of the Premier Sur-
geon to the King. Publication of Treatises on the Plague,
Smallpox and Measles. The Massacre of Saint Bartholo-
mew. Conjectures Regarding Pare's Religion. Another
Book on Surgery. Publication of a Book on Monsters
with a Treatise on Obstetrics.
VI 97
Death of Pare's Wife. Second Marriage to Jacqueline
Rousselet. Records Relating to Pare's Children. Autopsy
of Charles IX. Incidents at the Court of Henri III.
Complete Edition Dedicated to the King. Opposition by
the Faculte de Medecine. Changes Made in the Second
Edition. Discourse on Mummy. Latin Edition of Pare's
Works. Fourth Collected Edition Answers Gourmelen's
Attack by the "Apology and Journeys." The Siege of
Paris in 1590. Pare Entreats the Archbishop of Lyons
to Help Raise the Siege. Death of Pare at the Age of
Eighty.
CONTENTS ix
PART TWO
The Apology and Treatise Containing the Voyages Made
INTO Divers Places
FAOI
The Apology 129
The Journey to Turin, 1536 158
The Journey to Marolles and Low Brittany, 1543 . . .168
The Journey to Perpignan, 1543 174
The Journey to Landrecies, 1544 178
The Journey to Boulogne, 1545 179
The Journey to Germany, 1552 182
The Journey to Danvilliers, 1552 186
The Journey to Chateau le Comte, 1552 190
The Journey to Metz, 1552 193
The Journey to Hesdin, 1553 213
The Battle of Saint Quentin, 1557 240
The Journey to the Camp at Amiens, 1558 244
The Journey to Bourges, 1562 246
The Journey to Rouen, 1562 248
The Journey to the Battle of Dreux, 1562 252
The Journey to Havre de Grace, 1563 254
The Journey to Bayonne, 1564 255
The Battle of Saint Denis, 1567 257
The Journey of the Battle of Moncontour, 1569 .... 258
The Journey to Flanders 262
Index 279
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Title Page of Johnston's Translation
Portrait of Fran9ois i .
Foot Soldier of the Sixteenth Century
Portrait of Francois i .
The Hotel Dieu and Notre Dame .
A Ward in the Hotel Dieu .
Map of Paris in 1530 .
Cavalryman in the Sixteenth Century
Figure of a Man without Arms
Properties Owned by Pare near the Pont
Portrait of Henri ii .
Ambroise Pare at the Age of Forty-five
Gabriel de Lorgues, Comte de Montgom^
Tournament ....
Henri ii Receiving His Fatal Wound in
Montgomery ....
The Deathbed of Henri ii
Portrait of Fran9ois ii .
Portrait of Charles ix .
The Constable Anne de Montmorenci
Cutting up a Whale
Portrait of Catherine de Medici
Portrait of Coligny ....
The Murder of Admiral Coligny .
Autograph of Ambroise Pare .
Saint
ery
the
Michel
Arrayed
Joust with
PAGE
Frontispiece
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9
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. 25
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. 38
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for the
Facing 58
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Facing 82
. 103
Xll
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait of Ambroise Pare
Portrait of Henri iii
The Camphur, a Variety of Unicom Said to Have Been Found
in Ethiopia
The Reduction of Dislocation of the Shoulder
Procession of the Leaguers of Paris
Map of Paris in 1609 ....
Bee de Corbin ......
Notre Dame and the Hotel Dieu .
Cavalryman of the Fifteenth Century
Reduction of Shoulder Dislocations
Bombards on Wheels and a Platform .
Arquebus a Rouet and Arquebus a Meche
Bombards or Mortars on Movable Carriages
Boulogne .....
Portrait of the Due de Guise
Removal of the Lance and Arrow Heads
Different Kinds of Arrow Heads .
Different Sorts of Cauteries .
The Tree Which Bears the Incense .
Grenadier Lighting His Grenade .
Mangonnel or Mangonneau
Bullet Forceps
Different Types of Cannon
French Cannon
Battle of Orleans, 1563 .
Type of French Soldiers in the Sixteenth Century
PAGE
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. 120
. 122
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. 133
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. 157
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. 170
. 171
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. 239
. 247
. 250
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. 253
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Wounded Soldiers 261
AMBROISE PARE
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
AMBROISE PARE
CHAPTER I
T the beginning of the sixteenth
century France was experiencing the
beneficial results of the well directed
efforts of Louis XI and his immedi-
ate successors to overcome the power
of the great feudal houses and con-
centrate all government in the hands of the king.
Fran9ois I ascended the throne in 1515, and though
the Guises tried to secure the succession to the crown
for their family under his grandchildren, the effort was
a failure and when at the close of the century Henri IV
gained Paris by a mass, the Bourbon line was estab-
lished to rule supreme until the Revolution.
From the accession of Francois until the accession
of Henri the country passed through some of the most
1
2 AMBROISE PARE
remarkable episodes in its history. Cruel civil and re-
ligious wars, expensive foreign wars — accompanied by-
some barren successes but also by stupendous national
disasters, especially that of Pavia in 1525, when Fran-
9ois I and the flower of his nobility were defeated and
made prisoners or slain — sound projects of reform coun-
teracted by the worst political and religious persecu-
tion, splendid projects for the prosperity of the land
checked by wicked waste of public funds in debauchery
and foolish prodigality to royal favorites. Across the
scene pass the figures of some of the noblest and of
some of the basest persons known to history. Catherine
de Medici, the vile Itahan, with her incredible bigotry, '
craft and wickedness; her three degenerate sons, Fran-
cois II, Charles IX and Henri III; the family of the
Guises, able, unscrupulous, ready to sacrifice anything
to fulfil their ambitions, anxious to destroy by any
means, no matter how wicked, every Huguenot, and
finally committing the frightful crime of St. Bartholo-
mew in order that they might do so; Admiral Coligny,
the chief antagonist of the Guises, with his brothers;
Anne de Montmorenci, the harsh old soldier; Mon-
taigne, the most human of philosophers; Rabelais, the
doctor and priest, who under the grossest sort of alle-
gory, attacked abuses which he dared not touch other-
wise ; and hosts of lesser figures, including among them
jNIarguerite of Navarre, a royal blue stocking; Mary
Cjtdik acme Oicor, o (jraiid'' l\oy tcs iLrnics
(^x Monts' invri'lent encore , uu hruxt dc- cjn unmd j\3m:
Mais i^mners cntrurr, C/>C7it ten arami J\crion: :
Crand^erc, ct Qrand Swort^ ac£ Cccrrcs: ,ct Jes/frmcs-.
7~homas Jc \eu- '^ •' <^^ ouru^c .
LIFE AND TIMES 3
Queen of Scots, whose tragic fate serves to obscure her
wicked life ; Diane de Poitiers, the elderly but fascinat-
ing object of the love of Henri II, who marked with
their combined initials the palaces with which he de-
lighted to please her.
Among them lived and worked one whose fame as a
human benefactor will last until the radte is no more,
who from the humblest origin rose to high station solely
as the result of his own genius, and who in the course
of his long life, passed largely at the court or in camps,
came to know intimately most of the great figures in
the social, military and political life of his country.
Ambroise Pare was more than a great surgeon ; his rep-
utation for honesty and sagacity was such, that he be-
came the confidant and counsellor to many of the cour-
tiers and soldiers with whom he came in daily contact.
As the Due de Savoi said of him, "he knew other things
than surgery." His kindly, genial nature coupled with
his good sense, make it easy to comprehend how popu-
lar he was in surroundings where feelings of mutual
distrust and hatred predominated. In an age when re-
ligious hatred was at the reddest heat, we find him at-
tending Coligny for his wound and a few hours later
being sheltered by the King, who had ordained or at least
connived in the massacre of Coligny and his friends.
Although frequently accused of Huguenotism, he was
surgeon successively to Henri II, Fran9ois II, Charles
4 AMBROISE PARE
IX, and Henri III, and the Queen mother, Catherine
de Medici, was not only his patient but his friend.
There is a voluminous literature available on the
life and labors of Ambroise Pare. First we have his
own writings, especially the "Apologie et Traite Con-
tenant les Voyages Faits en Divers Lieux," which he
wrote in 1585, five years before his death. Scattered
throughout his other writings are many autobiographic
details.
In 1840 Malgaigne published his splendid edition
of Fare's complete works, prefaced by a resume of the
history of surgery and a life of Pare. For facts un-
earthed since Malgaigne's time, based on documents not
available to him, Le Paulmier's "Ambroise Pare d'ap-
res de Nouveaux Documents decouverts aux Archives
Rationales et des papiers de famille," published in 1884,
is invaluable. Dr. Le Pauhnier has collected a large
number of legal documents, processes, and other papers,
which clear up many points hitherto obscure in Fare's
life. There are also innumerable addresses, discourses,
and essays on Ambroise Pare, none of them, however,
presenting any evidence of original research on the part
of their authors. Le Paulmier discredits the publica-
tions of Begin, which the latter claimed were based on
an unpublished journal of Pare. As Begin never ex-
hibited this journal nor published satisfactory proofs
LIFE AND TIMES $
of its authenticity, I think Le Paulmier's doubts were
justified.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, there
was a great revival of interest in the history of Pare
among his countrymen, probably because of the inter-
est in military surgery awakened by the Napoleonic
wars. Much was written about him, but very little pos-
sessed historic value.
For those who do not read French, the translation
of Fare's works entitled, "The Works of the Famous
Chirurgien Ambroise Pare, translated out of Latin and
compared with the French, by T. Johnson," first pub-
hshed in 1634, and subsequently in 1649, 1665, and
1678, is contained in most large medical libraries, and
copies are comparatively easy to obtain. Malgaigne
directs attention to the fact that at the end of the adver-
tisement announcing his book Johnson says, "An
Apologie and Voyages, being not in the Latine, but
translated out of the last French edition, whom also I
have followed in the number of the Books, least any
should think some wanting, finding but twenty-six in
the Latin, and twenty-nine in the French." In 1897
Stephen Paget published his dehghtful book "Ambroise
Pare and His Times," in which he reprints the most
interesting portions of the "Journeys in Divers Places,"
adding historical and biographical details, in such a way
as to make a most excellent life of Pare.
6 AMBROISE PARE
For contemporary sidelights on the life and times of
Pare the "Memoirs - Journaux" of Pierre de L'Es-
toile are invaluable. A complete edition of this inter-
esting book was published at Paris in 1875. There is
also the "Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris sous le Regne
de Fran9ois I," which is available in an edition pub-
lished by Picard at Paris in 1910. These two books
are mines of information on the years they cover.
From what we have gleaned concerning Pare, from
his own writings and from the writings of his contem-
poraries, we are able to form what is probably as cor-
rect a mental portrait of the great surgeon as is possible
at a distance of over three hundred years. Of his physi-
cal characteristics we know but little, save that he must
have been of robust physique to endure the continuous
hard labor which he sustained for so many years, up to
within a short time before his death, at the advanced
age of eighty. Not only did he attend to the harass-
ing duties of an enormous practice but he also was
a voluminous writer and found time for much scien-
tific study and research. His labors were but little in-
terfered with by illness, his most serious complaint hav-
ing been the fractured leg which he sustained by the
kick of a horse. He was bitten by a viper but, as he
tells us, without \serious consequences, because of the
prompt treatment he administered himself. An at-
tack of plague was his only grave medical illness and
LIFE AND TIMES 7
from it he recovered with nothing more serious than a
large scar left by a sore.
His writings speak for the verve and esprit of his
mind. He was a Frenchman, a Frenchman writing
scientific works with a logical incisiveness and art which
make their perusal a pleasurable as well as a profitable
pursuit. The relations of his discoveries and experi-
ences are all narrated in the simplest language and bear
the imprint of exact observation and truthful explica-
tion. Pare loved a good story and his works are full
of them. He loved his fellowmen with a broad, gentle
humanity and liked to foregather with them. From the
references to good living which he lets fall from his pen
he was probably of a convivial turn but there is cer-
tainly no reason to believe that this genial spirit ever
led him to excesses.
Although disputes have raged as to whether he was
a Catholic or Protestant, there can be no doubt of his
sincere piety. In all his writings there are constant
references to God and one of his most quoted sayings
is that in which he attributes the recovery of his patients
to a divine providence.
His benevolence and charity are shown under many
different circumstances, to his relations, to his friends,
to his patients of all classes, but especially to the
poor common soldiers, who on many occasions showed
their appreciation of it. Contrast the kindly irony with
8 AMBROISE PARE
which he attacks "mon petit maitre" Gourmelen, after
the latter had assailed him in the bitterest fashion, with
the invectives hurled by others at the heads of those
who differed from them on scientific or other matters.
Pare accumulated a large estate. He owned a
group of houses near the Pont St. Michael and a vine-
yard at Meudon, in addition to much personal prop-
erty. He made generous use of it, aiding his own poor
relatives and the relatives of his wife, and giving aid
to many who had no such claimi upon him.
At a time when political or religious antagonism
led to personal attacks against any adversary, and when
the vilest libels were circulated about any prominent
personage who had incurred enmity on account of his
actions or opinions it is an added testimony to the
worth of Fare's character that the only attacks made
upon him were due to professional jealousy. Though
inspired by the blackest malice, the authors of these
maledictions could find no reproach with which to
blacken the personal character of the high-souled man
who was the object of their hatred.
Sully, the great prime minister of Henri IV, refers
to Pare in his memoirs, and the two men were probably
thrown together at various times in the course of the
long periods which both passed in connection with the
court. In the preface to his "Chronique du Regne de
Charles IX," Prosper Merimee says it is not in Mez-
LIFE AND TIMES 9
eray, but in Montluc, Brantome, d'Aubigne, Tavannes,
La Noue, etc., that one forms an idea of the French-
man of the sixteenth century. To these names he might
well have added that of Pare.
Foot soldier in the sixteenth century.
{Lacroiic.)
CHAPTER II
MBROISE PARE was born at Bourg
Hersent, a little village which now forms
part of the city of Laval, in the old prov-
ince of Maine. No trace of Pare or of
his family now remains there. In 1840 a bronze
statue of Pare by David was erected in Laval by
public subscription. At that time the statement was
made that a house, still standing, bore an inscrip-
tion stating that Pare was born within it. The year
of his birth has been the subject of much dispute. Mal-
gaigne, after a careful consideration of all the facts
available to him, was inclined to place it in 1517, but
Le Paulmier proves, I believe conclusively, that he was
born in 1510. This assertion is based partly on the in-
ternal evidence of certain passages in his writings,
partly on the dates borne on authentic portraits, and
lastly on the distinct assertion of Pierre L'Estoile, who
wrote, "Thursday, twentieth of December 1590, the eve
of Saint Thomas, died at Paris in his own house. Master
Ambroise Pare, surgeon to the King, aged eighty years,
a learned man and the chief of his art."
His father was, according to some, a cabinet-maker,
10
LIFE AND TIMES ii
but others, on probably better traditional evidence, state
that he was valet de chambre and barber to the Sieur
de Laval. Several of his near relatives were in medical
occupations. Thus his sister Catherine married Gas-
pard Martin, a master barber-surgeon of Paris. He
died following an amputation of the leg performed upon
him by Pare. In a pamphlet written by a surgeon
named Comperat, Pare was accused of having been
more or less responsible for his brother-in-law's death,
because he had used the method of ligation of the vessels
to check the hemorrhage at the operation, instead of
cauterizing the stump.
A brother, Jean, whom Pare greatly praises for his
skill in detecting the frauds of beggars who shammed
diseases and deformities, was a master barber-surgeon
at Vitre, and Pare is supposed to have studied with
him at any rate for a time.
He had another brother, also named Jean, who was
a cabinet-maker in Paris. Pare adopted his daughter
Jeanne, giving her a handsome dot when she married
Claude Viart, a surgeon of Paris, who had lived twenty
years in Pare's house as his pupil.
There is very little reliable information regarding
Pare's early years. According to one of the traditions
given by Percy, Pare's father put him to board with a
chaplain in order that he might learn Latin. The
priest, however, made Ambroise perform menial tasks
12 AMBROISE PARE
in his garden and stable, troubling himself but little
about his education. On leaving this ecclesiastical
fraud Pare was apprenticed, the report runs, to a sur-
geon of Laval named Vialot, who taught him the art
of bleeding. While with Vialot, the story goes, Law-
rence Colot came to Laval to perform a lithotomy.
Pare assisted at the operation and was so thrilled with
enthusiasm that he determined to go at once to Paris
and study surgery under the best masters obtainable.
Malgaigne knocks out this pretty legend, however, by
showing that Colot was taught the art of operating for
stone by Ottaviano da Villa, an itinerant lithotomist,
who had learned the method of operating by the "Grand
Appareil" from Mariano Sancto, and did not impart it
to Colot until after Mariano's death which did not oc-
cur until 1543. It is improbable that Colot would in
1530 have been called to operate anjrwhere, and he cer-
tainly at that time knew nothing about the operation
by which he was subsequently to attain such fame.
All that we know definitely about Pare during this
period may be gathered from a few statements of his
own, which have been interpreted as indicating that he
began the study of surgery first at Angers, or possibly
at Vitre with his brother Jean. In his book on "Mon-
sters" Pare tells of seeing at Angers in 1525 a beggar
who was at the door of the "temple," as Huguenot
chapels were then called, seeking alms because of a sup-
LIFE AND TIMES 13
posedly diseased arm which he exposed to the view of the
passers-by. In reality the impostor had cut an arm from
a man who had been recently executed and, hanging
it around his neck so that it projected from under his
cloak, had made it appear that the decomposing mem-
ber was one of his own. Unfortunately for him it be-
came detached and fell to the ground, and when he
tried to pick it up he was seen to have two good arms
of his own. He was taken before a magistrate who had
him publicly whipped, with the criminal's arm hang-
ing around his neck, and then banished from the town.
In the same book of "Monsters" Pare tells how he
saw his brother, Jean, "a surgeon dwelling in Vitre,"
detect a beggar woman, who stood "at the door of the
temple one Sunday," feigning that she had a cancer
of the breast by exposing to public view what seemed
to be a hideous sore. Jean Pare observed her carefully
and, noting that she was fat and well-nourished, with
a healthy color, had her taken before a magistrate, who
in turn sent her with Pare's brother to his office for a
thorough examination. He found that she had a
sponge under her armpit soaked in some animal's blood
mixed with milk. When she squeezed the sponge the
mixture was conducted by a small tube over her breast.
She also was whipped for her wickedness.
One year later Ambroise saw, as he tells us in his
*'Monsters," his brother Jean once more display his
14 AMBROISE PARE
skill as a detector of such impostors. This time the
beggar counterfeited leprosy at the door of a "temple."
Suspecting the man to be an impostor he took him be-
fore a magistrate, who sent him to his house for a more
thorough examination. When the imposture was there-
by proved, the beggar was whipped. The spectators,
evidently aware of the anesthesia which accompanies
certain forms of leprosy, yelled to the executioner to
whip him hard, saying, "He does not feel it, he is a
leper." Thus encouraged the executioner went at his
work with such vigor that the beggar died as the result
of the whipping.
The three references to the "temple" in the above
stories have been taken as evidence that Pare, at any
rate during one period of his life, was a Huguenot..
Le Paulmier conjectures that the year which
elapsed between the two detections which he states he
saw his brother make was passed by Ambroise at Vitre
studying with Jean. Although this brother Jean is
generally spoken of as a "barber-surgeon," it should be
noticed that Pare speaks of him distinctly as a "sur-
geon." It is presumed that Pare's master in the prov-
inces was a barber-surgeon because in the address to the
readers of his anatomy, published in 1552, he distinctly
states that he knew neither Greek nor Latin, as would
have been required of a surgeon. When he came to
LIFE AND TIMES 15
Paris in 1532 or 1533 he was certainly apprenticed to
a barber-surgeon.
When Pare came to Paris the medical profession
of that city was sharply divided into three classes.
First came the physicians, members of the Faculte de
INIedecine who held their heads very high. They arro-
gated to themselves the right of control over all who
attempted to practice the healing art in any of its
branches. The second class was composed of the sur-
geons, incorporated in the Confrerie de Saint Come,
and ordinarily termed surgeons of the long robe because
of the garment they were authorized to wear. The
community of the barber-surgeons held third place.
Malgaigne gives in his introduction to Pare's works
a long and learned account of the controversies which
raged for generations between these three bodies.
The surgeons were ground between the upper and
the nether millstone, the physicians constantly check-
ing them in any attempt to practice medicine and the
barber-surgeons frequently encroaching on the field of
surgical practice. The surgeons of the long robe would
not condescend to operate. They confined themselves
to the treatment of surgical conditions by the applica-
tion of plasters and ointments, the use of the cautery,
and the treatment of wounds and abscesses. The barber-
surgeons practiced venesection, cupping and leeching,
and were constantly extending their field by attempting
i6 AMBROISE PARE
operations, dressing wounds, etc. There were sev-
eral groups of empirical practitioners who did much
real surgery. Thus the "incisors" cut for stone and oper-
ated for hernia. They were tolerated rather than au-
thorized to practice. In many instances they were very
skillful as well as daring. At a later period we find
in this class the two celebrated monks, Frere Jacques
and Frere Come, who were most expert lithotomists.
Others in this group operated for cataract. The treat-
ment of fractures and dislocations was largely in the
hands of the "rabouteurs" or bonesetters. All these
empirics were peripatetics, wandering from city to city,
generally having to leave each place after a time be-
cause of the jealousy excited in the regular faculty by
their skill. Obstetrics was left in the hands of mid-
wives, some of whom attained great renown for their
ability.
Malgaigne shows us the facilities for learning pos-
sessed by barber-surgeons at this time and the good
use they made of their opportunities, in marked con-
trast to the laziness and ineptitude of the surgeons of
St. Come at Paris. While the Faculty of Medicine
and the surgeons of Montpellier translated the works
of the ancients, Hippocrates, Galen, and Paul of
^gina into French, and published them so that they
might be available to the barber-surgeons, men un-
learned in Latin and Greek, the Faculty of Medicine
LIFE AND TIMES 17
and the surgeons of Paris confined themselves entirely
to Latin in such works as they put forth.
From 1534 to 1537, when Jean Tagault served as
dean of the Faculty of IMedicine of Paris, he was
charged with the duty of reading the course of lectures
on the works of Gui de Chauliac, which was the meager
surgical pabulum afforded by the Faculty of ^Medicine
to those who studied surgery under its auspices. He
had already conceived the idea of publishing these lec-
tures when he was further stimulated to do so by the
following circumstance.
Fran9ois I had been led by the frequency of the
wars in which he was involved to a realization of the
necessity for the improvement of surgery in his realm.
One day as he dined at Cardinal du Bellai's, having
behind him, according to etiquette, his three physicians,
he expressed his intention of establishing a course of
surgery in Paris to be conducted by one or two quali-
fied physicians. This intention was conveyed to Jean
Tagault and he hastened to complete his work in the
hope that he might be chosen to fill the new position.
But his haste was in vain. His "Institutiones Chirur-
gicales" was published in 1543, but in 1542 the King
had already appointed Vidus Vidius, of Florence,
Premier Medecin du Roi and lecturer on surgery in
the College de France. Malgaigne explains the ap-
i8 AMBROISE PARE
pointment of this foreigner instead of Tagault as fol-
lows:
Vidus Vidius had a patron, Cardinal Rodolpho,
who had discovered a Greek manuscript containing the
commentaries of Galen on the surgical works of Hip-
pocrates in much more complete form than any hith-
erto known. This manuscript had been translated into
Latin by Vidus Vidius, who had carefully collated it
with such other manuscripts as were accessible in Rome,
and supplied commentaries of his own on such works
of Hippocrates as were not commented upon by Galen.
The book was published with a dedication to Fran-
cois I, and the Cardinal also presented the original
Greek manuscript to the King. Vidus Vidius was,
therefore, summoned to Paris to fill the chair, which he
held from 1542 to 1547. On the death of Fr&ncois I
he returned to Florence. Poor Tagault had died in
1545.
The Latin works of Vidus Vidius and Tagault,
however much they might aid surgery, were of little
use to the unlettered barbers who were ignorant of
that tongue. Nevertheless, these barber-surgeons were
almost the only practitioners doing real surgery in
Paris, except the unauthorized empirics. Thus the
barbers were prosectors to the anatomical lecturers of
the Faculty of Medicine, thereby acquirmg some prac-
tical knowledge of anatomy, which they used in dress-
LIFE AND TIMES 19
ing wounds and fractures, practicing bleeding and per-
forming many operations, while the surgeons of Saint
Come, not deigning to actually dissect the body and
standing aloof from all surgical procedures except the
application of plasters and ointments, had developed
into a set of useless drones who hindered the progress
of real surgical science.
As textbooks Pare used the works of Gui de Chau-
liac and Jean de Vigo, both of which had been trans-
lated from Latin into French, especially for the benefit
of students of surgery. As a barber-surgeon's appren-
tice he had, no doubt, to perform many of the tasks
falling to the lot of such unfortunates, but we have ab-
solutely no authentic light on this part of his career.
Probably the fact that he does not refer to it subse-
quently was because it was not all beer and skittles and
left an unpleasant impression on his mind. There has
recently been published a most interesting little book
on the life of the medical students of the sixteenth
century in Paris, ^ in which there is a fascinating pic-
ture of the turbulent Hfe led by the medical student
of that time, with side glimpses of the barber-surgeons.
Pare, however, did not remain long in the barber's
shop. He very soon became, in what manner or through
what influence is not known, compagnon chirurgien at
'Les Etudiants en M^decine de Paris au XVI Siecle Essai Historique,
par le Docteur Henri de Boyer de Choisy.
20 AMBROISE PARE
the Hotel Dieu, a position similar to a modern interne-
ship or resident surgeoncy. Until the reign of Henri
IV, the Hotel Dieu was the sole public hospital in
Paris. Accordingly, it admitted not only the injured
and those sick of ordinary diseases, but also the sufferers
who fell victims to the various epidemic diseases which
invaded Paris from time to time.
The Hotel Dieu, founded in the seventh century
by Saint Landry, was under the supervision of the
chapter of Canons of Notre Dame in Fare's time. The
care of the sick was in the hands of a number of lay
brothers and sisters. One of the lay brothers had the
direction of the management of the hospital with the
title of Master of the Hotel Dieu. In 1505 owing to
a condition of disorder and neglect of the sick the Par-
liament of Paris nominated a commission of eight citi-
zens of Paris to manage the temporal affairs of the
hospital. About a year after Pare terminated his resi-
dency in the Hotel Dieu a grand row occurred. Cer-
tain monks and nuns objected to measures for the re-
form of the hospital and it was found necessary to re
move them from its service. Some scholars sided with
them and were so rebellious that the authorities com-
mitted them to prison.
It is very difficult to ascertain just what were the
duties and privileges of the students admitted to the
Hotel Dieu. In 1327 Charles IV had ordered that
LIFE AND TIMES 21
two of the sworn surgeons of the Chatelet should visit
the sick at the Hotel Dieu and had provided that a
certain number of students should be employed in dress-
ing wounds and other duties.
Malgaigne conjectures that the students treated the
sick and injured and had the opportunity to perform
autopsies and dissect cadavers. When mentioning his
life there, Pare certainly speaks as though he had ob-
tained plenty of such invaluable experience during his
connection with the hospital. In the occasional refer-
ences contained in his works to his residency we detect
the pleasure and pride with which he looked upon it
in retrospect. Pare left the Hotel Dieu about 1536
after serving within it, he tells us in one place, for three
years, and in another, for four years, and acquiring a
large fund of practical knowledge.
It is curious that Pare nowhere in his writings
makes the slightest allusion by which we can discover
the names of any of his teachers or masters during his
apprenticeship or while living at the Hotel Dieu. What
renders this circumstance especially odd is the freedom
with which he alludes by name to the surgeons and
physicians and even barber-surgeons, with whom he
came in contact during the rest of his career.
The long life of Pare covers a most interesting pe-
riod in the history of France. He was born towards
the close of the life of Louis XII, and his death
22 AMBROISE PARE
occurred after the death of Henri III, and shortly be-
fore Henri IV was crowned King of France. Three
crowned heads kept the European world in a turmoil
throughout a large part of the first half of the six-
teenth century — Charles V, Emperor of Germany,
Henry VIII, King of England, and Fran9ois I, King
of France — all coming to the throne when young and
vigorous, gifted with intellect and force of character,
and imposing their personalities on the affairs and peo-
ples of their domains. Fran9ois I was fired with am-
bition to rule over certain parts of Italy, of which he
claimed the inheritance, and his desires in this respect
brought him into direct conflict with the Emperor.
Henry VIII allied himself first with one and then with
the other, on whichever side he thought would best
serve his own interests.
Another source of conflict was the claim of Charles
to the Duchy of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Na-
varre, former appanages of the French crown. After
many fruitless Italian campaigns in which a few bril-
liant military successes only served to involve the
French more hopelessly in the toils, came the final dis-
aster at Pavia, February 24, 1525. A splendid French
army commanded by the King in person was over-
whelmingly defeated by the Imperial troops under
Lannoy and Charles of Bourbon, the former Constable
of France, who had become a traitor and left his coun-
fili-
A Ward in the Hotel Uieu
{From a seventeenth-century enyraviny.)
LIFE AND TIMES 23
try to serve against it under Charles V. Ten thousand
French were slain, among them many of the nobility
and numerous officers of high rank. The King of
France, the King of Navarre, the Count of St. Pol,
the Mareschal Anne de Montmorenci, and many other
nobles and leaders were made prisoners. The King
passed six months of captivity in Spain before he se-
cured his release on the most humihating terms, having
to send two of his sons, one of them the future Henri
II, to take his place as hostages, before he could return
to his kingdom. Once among his subjects Francois
declared that he did not consider himself bound by the
terms of the treaty which had been agreed to while he
was a prisoner at Madrid because it had been made
while he was under constraint. War was resumed and
kept up until 1529, when the Peace of Cambrai was
negotiated by Louise of Savoy, mother of the French
King, with the Archduchess Marguerite, the aunt of
the Emperor, for which reason it is often known as the
"Paix aux Dames."
The years immediately following this, however,
were spent by Fran9ois in cementing alliances and
strengthening his forces for another conflict with the
Emperor. He allied himself with Henry VIII, and
in 1534-5 even entered into a treaty with the Turks.
In 1535 Francisco Sforza, Duke of Milan, died and the
24 AMBROISE PARE
King of France at once put forth his claims to the
Duchy, sending an expedition into Italy to back them
up. Charles V in return led a large army into Pro-
vence. Anne de Montmorenci commanded the army
which defended France against this invasion. He con-
tented himself with retreating before the imperialists,
devastating the country as he went. The large towns,
such as Marseilles, were too strongly fortified and gar-
risoned to be taken by the Emperor and in consequence
he was compelled to retire with his army, lest it should
starve in the wasted country. When the imperialists
retreated Anne de Montmorenci carried the war into
Italy, passing the Alps after a successful engagement
at the Pas de Suze. After some more or less desultory
fighting peace was declared in November, 1537.
It was in this campaign that Pare began his career
as a military surgeon, crossing the Alps with the army
and finally sojourning for some time at Turin. Though
he had not yet passed his examinations to be admitted
to the community of the barber-surgeons he went in
the capacity of surgeon to Mareschal de Monte j an, col-
onel-general of the French Infantry. As he did not
take his examinations for admission as a barber-sur-
geon until 1541, Le Paulmier thinks that owing to the
narrowness of his resources he went with the army as
the only means open to him. He could not legally
PARIS IN 15iO
( (/ Ih, Wop by Gto s, B mn)
LIFE AND TIMES 25
practice in Paris until he had passed the barber-sur-
geons' examination.
From now on we know much of his life and per-
sonality from his own writings, especially from the
"Apologie et Traite contenant les Voyages faits en di-
vers Lieux, par Ambroise Pare, de Laval, Conseiller
et Premier Chirurgien de Roi," published at Paris in
the fourth edition of his collected works in 1585, five
years before his death. This book was written as an
answer to one published in 1580 by Etienne Gourmelen,
in which he attacked Pare and brought to bear all the
opinions of the ancients to prove that his treatment of
wounds and his use of the ligature in amputations was
wrong.
This is the book of which we offer here a new and
complete translation. Paget has given a most delight-
ful rendering of the most interesting portions of the
"Apology," but he omits the first portion in which Pare
quotes from many of the ancients to prove that the
merit of his discovery lay not in the use of the ligature
but in its application to amputations. As so many
persons continue to refer to Pare as "the discoverer of
the hgature," it is well for all to learn from his own
writings that he distinctly disclaims any such title to
fame. The racy style in which the book is written re-
veals very little trace of its author's advanced years,
although he occasionally waxes somewhat garrulous
26 AMBROISE PARE
in Jiis stories. He continually refers to his opponent as
mon petit maitre and he garnishes the margin of his
pages with charming notes, many of them exhibiting
a naive vanity and a bonhomie which is most delightful.
Cavalryman in the sixteenth century.
(Lacroix.)
CHAPTER III
N his very first campaign Pare made the
great discovery that boiling oil was not
only of no use, but actually hurtful in
gunshot wounds. All the authorities on
gunshot wounds prior to this had taught that they were
poisoned, envenomed by the powder, and that in order
to counteract the poison they should be treated with
burning oil. The French troops after a bloody fight
had captured the castle of Villaine. Pare dressed the
wounded in the accepted fashion with boiling oil, stat-
ing that he had read in John of Vigo that gunshot
wounds were venomous because of the powder and must
be cauterized with boihng oil to destroy the poison.
But, owing to the great number to be dressed, "at
length my oil lacked and I was constrained to apply
in its place a digestive made of yolks of eggs, oil of
roses and turpentine. That night I could not sleep
at my ease, fearing that by lack of cauterization I
would find the wounded upon which I had not used the
said oil dead from the poison. I raised myself very
early to visit them, when beyond my hope I found those
to whom I had applied the digestive medicament
27
28 AMBROISE PARE
feeling but little pain, their wounds neither swollen nor
inflamed, and having slept through the night. The
others to whom I had applied the boiling oil were fever-
ish, with much pain and swelling about their wounds.
Then I determined never again to burn thus so cruelly
the poor wounded by arquebuses."
A curious light on the life of the soldier of the time
is given by Pare in his narrative of this campaign.
Seeking a stable in which to put the horses of his man
and himself, he came upon the bodies of four dead and
three wounded soldiers lying against a wall. The
wounded were terribly disfigured, unconscious, and
their clothing yet burning from the powder. An old
soldier came up and regarding them with pity asked
Pare if there was anything he could do for them. Pare
replied in the negative, whereupon the soldier pro-
ceeded to cut their throats "doucement et sans cholere."
Watching the action Pare exclaimed that the seasoned
veteran was a bad man. The old soldier repHed to the
young surgeon that he prayed to God if he were ever
in a similar case he would find someone to do the same
for him rather than that he should languish miserably.
On this journey Pare illustrates the persistence
with which he sought any information which could be
of value in his work. While at Turin he met a sur-
geon who claimed to possess an invaluable balm for
dressing wounds made by arquebuses. Pare pursued
LIFE AND TIMES 29
him for two years with persuasions and gifts to ehcit
his secret. Finally the surgeon confided to him that
his wonderful recipe consisted of newborn puppies
boiled in oil of lilies, mixed with earthworms pre-
pared with oil of Venice. He was willing to derive
knowledge from every source, no matter how unlearned
or humble it might be. Having met an old woman who
advised him to apply raw onions and salt to burns, he
promptly tried the remedy, and, finding it useful, con-
tinued its application in such cases. Throughout his
life he lost no opportunity thus to study the methods
employed by empirics, quacks, and laymen, consider-
ing no source of information unworthy of his notice if
thereby he could acquire knowledge that might be of
value.
Pare often tells of how his services were sought on
every side by the wounded. Finally Monsieur de Mon-
te j an fell ill of an hepatic flux which ultimately proved
fatal. He sent for a distinguished physician of Milan
to come to Turin and treat him. Pare lost no oppor-
tunity of working with this learned doctor, who in his
turn was a witness of the skill and hard work of the
young surgeon. "So much so that one day the doctor
said to the Marshal, 'You have a surgeon youthful in
age, but old in knowledge and experience; regard him
well for he will be of service and honor.' But the good
30 AMBROISE PARE
man did not know that I had lived three years at the
Hotel Dieu de Paris, to heal the sick there." After
the death of de Monte j an, the Mareschal d'Annebaut,
who succeeded him in command of the soldiers, be-
sought Pare to remain as his surgeon, but Pare refused
his offer and returned to Paris in 1539, where he studied
hard, especially anatomy, in order that he might be
admitted as a barber-surgeon. In 1541, as stated above,
he passed his examination and became a master barber-
surgeon. As Le Paulmier shows, Pare underwent two
examinations for his admission to the Community of
the Barber-Surgeons. Possibly he failed to pass the
first time he was examined, thus necessitating the sec-
ond examination. Le Paulmier says that he had his
first examination at the end of the year 1540 or the com-
mencement of 1541, and he gives the following extract
from the records of the Faculte de Medicine regarding
his second examination which took place later in 1541:
"A Rasoribus de novo examinatis:
A duobus rasoribus qui anno praeterito examinati
fuerant, videlicet, ab
Ambrosio Parre (sic), 72 sols 6 deniers parisis.
Theodorico de Heri, 72 sols 6 deniers parisis."
The examinations for admission to the Barber-Surgeons
were at that time conducted under the auspices of the
Faculty of Medicine. This document was unknown
LIFE AND TIMES 31
to Malgaigne who thought that Pare had been received
into the Barber-Surgeons in 1536.
Theodore, or Thierry de Hery, like Pare, had
studied at the Hotel Dieu, and had then accompanied
the French army as surgeon during the Italian cam-
paign. He and Pare studied anatomy together. Pare
frequently refers to him as a skilful surgeon and a good
man. In 1552 he published a book on the treatment
of venereal diseases. He died about 1561.
In 1541 Pare married Jeanne Mazelin, daughter
of Jean INIazelin, a deceased "valet chauffe-cire de la
Chancellerie de France." Her mother, nee Jeanne de
Prime, had remarried with one Etienne Cleret, a mer-
chant and bourgeois of Paris. The witnesses on the
side of the bride were the widow of Odo de Prime,
master barber surgeon of Paris, and Mery de Prime,
merchant and bourgeois of Paris. Jeanne's dot con-
sisted of six hundred livres tournois, with her habille-
ments fiUccudcc. Pare^ settled two hundred livres tour-
nois on the bride. On the back of his copy of his mar-
riage contract Pare wrote, "Traite de mon mariage
premier."- It is curious to notice that Pare had two
daughters who bore the name of Catherine, one by his
first wife, the other by his second, although the first
^This, with many other invaluable documents bearing on Pare, was
unearthed bv Le Paulmier among the archives of the CHateau de Paley
in the possession of Madame la Marquise Le Charron. Her husband was
a direct descendant of the great surgeon by his daughter Catherine, the
child of his second wife, who married Claude Hedelin.
32 AMBROISE PARE
Catherine was living when the second was born. The
identity of names has given rise to some confusion.
Pare and his wife lived on the left bank of the Seine
near the end of the Pont Saint Michel in the parish of
St. Andre des Arts. In the course of his life Pare ac-
quired quite a few houses in this neighborhood near
what is now the Quai des Grand Augustines and he
also owned a house and vineyard in Meudon. The
church of St. Andre des Arts and the houses of Pare
have all disappeared in the course of modern improve-
ments. Rabelais was cure of Meudon at the time when
Pare had his vineyard there and it would be curious if
they had not met, for Rabelais had studied medicine
as well as theology and we owe to him a translation of
some of the works of Hippocrates. However, as there
is no reference made by either of them in his writings
to the other, and as no other evidence of any connection
between them exists, we cannot know that they fore-
gathered together.
A contemporary of Pare with whom one feels he
had much in common was Montaigne (1533-1592).
Montaigne was on intimate terms with many of the
courtiers and nobles of his tmie and he and Pare must
have had mutual acquaintances. Furthermore they
were both officers of the court of Henri III, Pare being
his chief surgeon, and Montaigne one of the gentlemen
of his bedchamber. In Chapter xx, Book 1, of Mon-
LIFE AND TIMES 33
taigne's "Essays" he tells how once when he was at
Vitry-le-Francois he "happened to see a man whom the
Bishop of Soissons had in confirmation named Ger-
maine, and all the inhabitants thereabout have knowne
and scene to be a woman-child until she was two and
twentie years of age, and called by the name of Marie.
He was, when I saw him, of good years, and had a long
beard, and was yet unmarried. He saith, that upon a
time leaping, and straining himselfe to overleape an-
other, he wot not how, but where before he was a woman
he suddenly felt the instrument of a man to come out of
him; and to this day the maidens of that towne and
countrie have a song in use, by which they warne one
another, when they are leaping, not be straine them-
selves overmuch, or open their legs too wide, for feare
they should be turned to boys, as Marie Germaine
was." Pare in his book on "Monsters," in the seventh
chapter, says that when he was at Vitry-le-Fran9ois in
the suite of King Charles IX, he also saw INIarie Ger-
maine. He tells practically the same story as Mon-
taigne, except that the change of sex occurred, according
to his informant, in the fifteenth year. It is possible
that both were travelling with the Court at the time
when this prodigy was seen.
Again, Montaigne^ writes of a mountebank whom
he saw "being a child, that with the bending and wind-
*Essays, Book I, Chapter xxii, Florio's translation.
34 AMBROISE PARE
ing of his necke, (because he had no hands) would
brandish a two-hand-sword, and manage a Holbard,
as nimbly as any man could doe with his hands: he
would cast them in the aire, then receive them againe,
he would throw a Dagger, and make a whip to yarke
and lash, as cunningly as any Carter in France." And
in another place: "Not long since in mine owne house,
I saw a little man, who at Nantes was borne without
armes, and hath so well fashioned his feet to those serv-
ices, his hands should have done him, that in truth they
have almost forgotten their natural office. In all his
discourses he nameth them his hands, he carveth any
meat, he chargeth and shoots off a pistole, he threads
a needle, he soweth, he writeth, puts off his caj), comb-
eth his head, plaieth at cards and dice; shuffleth them
and handleth them with a great dexteritie as any other
man that hath the perfect use of his hands: the monie
I have sometimes given him, he hath carried away with
his feet, as well as any other could doe with his hands."
In the 1573 edition of his works, Pare writes in his
book on "Monsters" of seeing when in Paris a man,
about forty years old, who had no arms, yet was able
to crack a whip by means of his shoulder and neck and
could play cards or throw dice with his feet. He men-
tions that he eventually turned out to be a thief and a
murderer, who was hanged and broken on the wheel.
This may have been the man seen by Montaigne
^^ ,^-fr< y3 ^s::::::^^
Figure of a Man Without Arms.
(Pard, Edition 1585.)
LIFE AND TIMES 37
for the descriptions of the feats these men performed
are very similar. Apparentlj^ there were a number
of such prodigies, however, because JNIalgaigne shows
that Rueff in his book "De Conceptu et Generatione,"
published in 1554, describes one, and Lycosthenes in
1557 copied Rueff's picture and added to it the hatchet
and whip. Lycosthenes refers his case to the year 1528.
Pierre I'Estoile saw such a man in Paris on February
10, 1586. He says this man was a native of Nantes, and
was about forty years old.
The only incident Pare records of his life at Meu-
don is in Chapter xix of his "Monsters." In this place
he mentions that he had ordered some large stones
broken up, and in the middle of one of them was found
a big live frog. As Pare found no opening in the
stone, he regarded this as a proof of the possibility of
spontaneous generation. The incident may be re-
garded as indicative of an interest in his little country
place. We may imagine Pare seeking rest from his
arduous work in the pleasures of country life on the
property which he had been able to purchase by his
life of self-sacrificing labor.
Le Paulmier gives a small map of the territory near
the end of the Pont Saint Michel, showing the houses
which were owned by Pare, and occupied by him or his
relatives. He acquired these one by one, first purchas-
ing the Maison de la Vache in 1550. Some of these
38
AMBROISE PARE
properties were obtained by selling out his brother-in-
law, Antoine Mazelin, to secure payment of a bad debt.
Apparently Pare bought in the property to save it
from other creditors. At any rate the arrangement by
Ji MiuMn- cUJhtiumnat.
D Passage Jtpendaiti <2» uttt-^^t'040tf.
et> tervatft a, aer/der a. lorMaijen. E
C ' Miusoivde'McrydtiPhma.
D Jl£tui>w dc Paris.
E Mnisiyn de Jeanne tl<iri
F Ceur cU hz. fjizisaa- O
G Mautm- dc' la, Ticulw.
B Miisoriy dC'Perur
1 K Jtfaison, de- Gi4ccut/ aPtcpaMMt' I.
' L Crurde-la-JLtutm-H.
H MaiJ^n.dttTroitJKorti.
Properties Owned by Pare near the Pont Saint Michel.
{he Paulmier.)
which Pare got possession was amicable, for Mazehn
was godfather to one of his children long afterward.
By Jeanne Mazelin, Pare had three children. On
July 4, 1545, their son Francois was baptized at the
church of St. Andre des Arts. One of his godfathers
was a physician, Fran9ois de Villeneuve, the other a
barber, Loys Drouet. His godmother was Jeanne de
Prime. This child died sometime before the 5th of
LIFE AND TIMES 3Q
August, 1549, because in signing a legal document on
that date the Pares state that they are childless.
Fourteen years later a second son, appropriately
named Isaac, was bom to Pare. He was baptized on
August 11, 1559. His godfathers were Antoine
Mazelin, his uncle, and Nicole Lambert, ordinary sur-
geon to the king. His godmother was Anne du Tillet,
wife of Etienne Lallemant, conseiller du Roy. This
child lived less than one year, his funeral occurring on
August 2, 1560.
About a year after the death of this son a daughter
was born who was baptized Catherine, on September
30, 1560. Her godfather was Gaspard Martin, the
barber-surgeon who had married Pare's sister. One of
her godmothers was Catherine Briou, wife of Loys de
Prime, wine merchant. The other godmother was Mar-
guerite Cleret, widow of Etienne Cleret, and the third
was Jehanne de Prime. This daughter grew up, mar-
ried Fran9ois Rousselet, the brother of her father's
second wife, and died September 21, 1616.
Although Pare himself gives 1543 as the date of his
journey to Perpignan, he is evidently in error as the
siege of Perpignan occurred in the autumn of 1542
The town was occupied by Spanish soldiers. Pare went
as a surgeon with ^lonsieur de Rohan and rode so hard
to reach his post that he suffered an attack of hema-
turia. At Perpignan he displayed his astuteness in the
40 AMBROISE PARE
case of Monsieur de Brissac, Grand Master of the Ar-
tillery. De Brissac received an arquebus shot in
his shoulder. Three or four of the best surgeons of the
army sought in vain to locate the ball. Pare was sum-
moned to his bedside. He at once made de Brissac as-
sume the position in which he was at the time he re-
ceived the wound. Pare then after a brief search lo-
cated the ball and it was easily removed. This nar-
rative has appended to it one of the charming little mar-
ginal notes with which Pare annotated his book and
which display the naivete and simpleness of heart of
the author. Thus to the statement that he made the
patient assume the posture in which he was wounded,
Pare appends the note "addresse de I'Auteur." The
French broke camp at Perpignan and Pare returned to
Paris.
In 1543, Pare resumed his military career, again as
surgeon to Monsieur de Rohan at Marolles and in
Lower Brittany. The English had sent a fleet de-
signed to land in Brittany, but the French gathered in
such force that they did not attempt a landing but
sailed away. The French remained a short time in
camp and Pare tells us of the rough sports with which
they whiled away the time. Monsieur d'Estampes got
the Bretons to come into camp where they displayed
their dances and other sports. A wrestling match was
held in which one of the participants was killed;
LIFE AND TIMES 41
Pare opened the body of the dead wrestler. Finally
Pare left the camp and returned to Paris. Monsieur
de Laval gave him a horse for his man servant and
Monsieur d'Estampes presented him with a diamond
worth thirty ecus. In 1544 he was with the army sent
by Fran9ois I to victual Landrecy but saw no actual
fighting.
Le Paulmier shows that JNIalgaigne was wrong in
his supposition that it was not until after his return
from Perpignan that Pare had his famous interview
with Sylvius. Le Paulmier states that it was in 1539
that Jacobus Sylvius (Jacques Dubois) professor of
medicine at Paris and memorable as the ardent sup-
porter of Galen against the school of anatomists led
by his former pupil Vesalius, sought out the young
army surgeon who had already achieved an honorable
reputation and was held in much esteem. Sylvius asked
him to dine with him and was so much impressed with
the importance of Pare's views on the treatment of
arquebus wounds, particularly as to placing the patient
in the position in which he was at the time he received
his wound, that he urged him to publish them. The
young man followed his advice, but it was not until
1545 that he published his first book entitled, "La
methode de traicter les playes faictes par hacque-
butes et aultres bastons a feu: et de celles qui sont
faictes par fleches, dardz, et semblables : aussi des com-
42 AMBROISE PARE
bustions specialement faictes par le pouldre a canon:
compose par Ambroyse Pare, maistre barbier-chirur-
gien a Paris." This book was dedicated to M. de Ro-
han and made the fame of its author. It was reprinted
in 1552 and again in 1564, and subsequently, with addi-
tions based on the author's experiences in later years,
was included as part of his surgery in his collected
works.
In 1545 Pare was with the army at the siege of
Boulogne, during which the Due Francois de Guise re-
ceived a severe wound. He received the nickname
Balafre from the terrible scar. Although most writers
state that Pare was the surgeon who attended Guise
on this occasion, Pare himself relates the story without
stating that he had any part in it. A lance entered the
head of the Duke above the right eye, passed down
through the nose and emerged between the nucha and
the ear on the opposite side. The iron head of the lance
with a portion of its wooden shaft remained in the
wound. Pare states, "in such fashion that it could not
be withdrawn without great violence, even with a black-
smith's pinchers." Malgaigne believed that if Pare had
himself been the surgeon who accomplished the cure, he
certainly would have mentioned the fact. The belief
that it was Pare who performed the operation and cure
is based on the narrative of the occurrence given in an
anonymous "Life of Admiral Coligny," pubhshed at
LIFE AND TIMES 43
Paris in 1686, nearly a century and a half after the
accident, in which the author states that Pare, "sur-
geon to the king," withdrew the lance head with smith's
pincers. Malgaigne in transcribing the story as given
by the anonymous author points out that at that time
Pare was not "surgeon to the king" and directs atten-
tion to the fact that Pare wrote his first account of the
case in 1552, and repeated it in all the subsequent edi-
tions of this book, and again in his "Apology" in 1585,
without once implying that he had any professional
connection whatever with it.
After his return from Boulogne, Pare resumed his
practice in Paris and also devoted himself to the study
of anatomy. Malgaigne conjectures that he was pro-
sector for Sylvius. If so it was a curious conjuncture
for the most enlightened and advanced surgeon of his
age to serv^e the most conservative and unenlightened
anatomist, for Sylvius was Galenical to the core, an-
nouncing that if the anatomical discoveries of Vesalius
and the other anatomists of his time were true, the ana-
tomical structure of man must have altered since the
time of Galen. Be that as it may, in conjunction with
his friend Thierry de Hery, another barber-surgeon.
Pare dissected many bodies and in 1549 published as
the result of his labors a little work on anatomy.^ There
*Briefue collection de radministration anatomique: avec la maniere de
conjoindre les os: Et d'extraire les enfans tant morts que viuans du
ventre de la mere, lorsque nature de soy ne peult venir a son effet.
44 AMBROISE PARE
is nothing very remarkable about the anatomical por-
tion of this book, but that part which dealt with obstet-
rics contained within it the first published reference to
the use of podahc version. This little book may be re-
garded as the germ of his much larger and more elab-
orate treatise on obstetrics in his book on the genera-
tion of man, which was published in 1573.
Francois I died in 1547 and was succeeded by his
son Henri II, who proved a most valuable friend to
Pare. Henri II possessed many most attractive quali-
ties. Of robust health, fond of outdoor life, a great
horseman and a mighty hunter, he was likewise a man
of keen intellect and judgment and during his reign
by his wise choice of counsellors and by his firm, pru-
dent management he did much to repair some of the
evils into which France had fallen. His wife, Cather-
ine de Medici, and he were married for ten years be-
fore they had a child, then their hopes were more than
realized for in thirteen years Catherine gave birth to
ten children, three of whom lived to be kings of
France.^ Henri and Catherine's menage was a curious
one. She appears to have been devotedly attached to
"Many curious stories have been told to account for the barrenness of
Catherine's eariy married life, most of them attributing its source to im-
potence on Henri's part. Some state it was due to his having a hypo-
spadias which was cured by operation. His responsibility is negatived by
the fact that before marrj'ing Catherine he had had an illegitimate
daughter (Diane de France) by an Italian girl. It is generally conceded
that the counsels of Fernel, the court physician, led to the happy result.
He is said to have advised the royal pair to have connection during
Catherine's menstrual periods.
l1!firTipfP'lf5^p^^^^^^^
LIFE AND TIMES 45
him, and he in turn always treated her in public with
apparent affection and esteem ; but the King's love was
really bestowed on Diane de Poitiers, and she probably
had more influence over him than any other person.
She was nineteen years older than Henri, a widow with
two children, who had been on intimate relations with
his own father. Some have tried to prove that their
relations were purely platonic, but it is hard to believe
this in view of the loverlike gallantry with which Henri
treated her.
In 1552 Pare repubhshed his book on wounds made
by arquebuses, dedicating this edition to King Henri
II, at the suggestion of Monsieur de Rohan to whom
the first had been dedicated. In the same year (1552)
Pare made his ''Journey to Germany," once more ac-
companying Monsieur de Rohan. During the trip he
had occasion to display the genuine kindness of his heart
in the performance of an act of charity which won him
the love of the private soldiers, men whom the cruelty
of the warfare of that time had little ^accustomed to
acts of that nature. After one of the humble soldiers
had been terribly wounded, his comrades dug a ditch
in which it was proposed to bury him before they re-
sumed their march in order to save him from the sav-
agery of the peasants, whose just hatred of the soldiers
for the devastation of their lands led them to perpetrate
barbarous brutahties on such fighting men as fell into
46 AMBROISE PARE
their hands. Therefore the soldiers, hke the old soldier
whom Pare tells us cut the throats of three wounded
comrades on his campaign in 1537, were wont to put
one another out of misery rather than be captured alive.
Pare persuaded them to take the wounded man along
on one of the army wagons. He himself performed for
him the "offices of physician, apothecary, surgeon
and cook" and finally cured him of his wounds. To
this narrative Pare in all naivete appends the note
"Charite de I'Auteur." The soldiers appreciated his
charity so greatly that at the first opportunity each
man-at-arms gave him an ecu and each archer a demi-
ecu.
Returning from this campaign in Germany in 1552,
at the siege of Danvilliers, Pare amputated an officer's
leg by his new method, using the ligature instead of
hot irons to check the hemorrhage. "I dressed him and
God healed him. He returned home gaily with a
wooden leg, saying that he had got off cheaply without
being miserably burned' to staunch the bleeding, as you
write in your book, mon petit maistre." Malgaigne
notes that only a short time before, in the second edi-
tion "* (1552) of his book on wounds. Pare had still ad-
hered to the use of the cautery to stop hemorrhage after
*» La Maniere de Traicter les playes faites tant par hacjuebutes que par
fleches: et les accidentz d'icelles, comma fractures et caries des os, gangrene
et mortification: avec pourtraictz des instrumentz necessaires pour leur
curation, Et la methode de curer les combustions principalement faites
par la pouldre k canon. Paris, 1552.
LIFE AND TIMES 47
amputation. But he had discussed with Etienne de la
Riviere and Fran9ois Rasse, two of the surgeons of
Saint Come, the question as to whether the ligature,
applicable to other forms of hemorrhage, could not be
used just as well in amputation wounds. They all
agreed that it was worth trying and here at the first
opportunity which offered Pare tried it, with success.
In his "Dix Livres de La Chirugie," 1564, Pare first
published his method of ligating the vessels in ampu-
tations, stating candidly that in doing so he entirely
ignored the method of stopping bleeding by cauteriza-
tion which he had recommended in his book, published
in 1552. He advises his reader in 1564 to forego the
use of the cautery altogether.
His fame had reached the ears of Antoine de Bour-
bon, JNIonsieur de Vendome, who was later King of
Navarre, and he sent for Pare and asked him to go
with him as surgeon on an expedition he was leading
into Picardy. Pare sought to be excused, alleging that
his wife was ill and required his presence in Paris. But
Monsieur de Vendome insisted, stating that he had left
his wife, who was of as good a house as Pare's, and that
there were other doctors in Paris besides her husband to
treat her. Pare yielded and went on the campaign. He
won the confidence and affection of Monsieur de Ven-
dome to such an extent that he brought Pare to the at-
tention of King Henri II. The King was so impressed
48 AMBROISE PARE
that he took Pare into his own service, appointing him
one of his surgeons in ordinary.
Pare's account of his experiences at the siege of
Metz in 1552 is one of the most graphic of his relations.
The Emperor Charles V laid siege to Metz in the late
autumn of 1552. The Due de Guise, d'Enghien,
Conde, and many other nobles were in the city and
determined to hold out to all extremities. There was
great mortality among the wounded in the town and
Guise sent word to the King requesting him to send
Ambroise Pare with a fresh supply of drugs for him
as he feared those they had were poisoned. Pare states
that he does not believe the drugs were poisoned but
that the wounded died because of the severity of their
wounds and the extreme cold of the weather. The
King arranged to have Pare smuggled through the ene-
mies' lines by an Italian captain who got 1500 ecus for
convoying him. Pare arrived within the walls of Metz
at midnight. He was taken to the bedside of the Due
de Guise who greeted him warmly. The very next
morning Pare set to work. After he had brought the
greetings of the King to the various nobles and gentle-
men who were so bravely defending the city and had
distributed his load of drugs to the surgeons and
apothecaries, he fell to dressing the wounded who kept
sending for him from all quarters. He set one seigneur's
leg, which had been broken by a cannon shot four
LIFE AND TIMES 49
days before, and treated only by a man who used cer-
tain spells and did not reduce the fracture. Another
gentleman whom he treated had been unconscious four-
teen days, after having been hit on the head by a stone
cannon ball. The patient had vomited and bled from
the nose, mouth and ears, and had convulsive tremors.
He was trephined. Pare modestly concludes his history
of the case, *'I dressed him with other surgeons, and
God healed him; and to-day he is yet living, thank
God." Read in his story the many picturesque de-
tails of the siege, the desperate straits to which both
besiegers and besieged were reduced, and the fierce
fighting. Finally the plague began to ravage the Em-
peror's camp and realizing the hopelessness of his ef-
forts he gave up the siege and returned with his army
on the day after Christmas. Pare took leave of the
Due de Guise and returned to the King at Paris, by
whom he was honorably received and given 200 ecus,
besides the 100 ecus he had received on going forth.
In 1553 Pare was captured by the enemy when the
town of Hesdin fell into their hands. He had been
sent to Hesdin by the King. The French made a des-
perate defense but were finally obliged to capitulate.
Pare, addressing mon petit maistre, says that if he had
been there he would have lacked charcoal to heat his
hot irons and would have been killed hke a calf (comma
un veau) for his cruelty if he had attempted to use
50 AMBROISE PARE
them. Also he would have lacked the jellies and dain-
ties which he was wont to feed his patients. At the
council of the officers Pare gave his voice for a sur-
render. Before the enemy entered Pare disguised him-
self by giving his velvet coat, satin doublet and cloak
to a soldier in exchange for the latter's ragged doublet
with a frayed leather collar, a bad hat and a short
cloak. Pare then went to Monsieur de Martigues who
had been under his care with a shot wound of the lungs
and arranged that he should stay with him and dress
him when they were both prisoners. This was a risky
scheme of Pare's because although by disguising him-
self he might escape paying the ransom which would
be demanded for his release, he ran the chance of meet-
ing the fate allotted to common prisoners of that time,
namely being shot or cut down without mercy and with
no regard to the terms of surrender, a fate which actu-
ally befell most of those who surrendered at Hesdin.
Monsieur de Martigues, however, being a prisoner of
importance asked that Pare be allowed to accompany
him to the camp of his enemies and the Spaniards
granted his request. His captors sent some of their
own surgeons and physicians to see Monsieur de Mar-
tigues. Pare resolved to appear ignorant and not let
them know they had captured the King's surgeon and
yet he wished them to see that he had taken good care
of the wounded man as otherwise they might cut his
LIFE AND TIMES 51
throat. After Pare had told the visitors the nature of
the wound and what he had done for it, they all agreed
with him in his unfavorable prognosis but stated in
their opinion he had been well dressed and cared for.
At this conjuncture a Spanish impostor came forward
and avowed that he could cure de Martigues, if he was
given entire charge of him. The Duke of Savoy gave
orders that no physician or surgeon should interfere
with the Spaniard, and Pare was forbidden on pain of
death to go near him. This rejoiced Pare because he
feared that when de Martigues should die the Spaniards
would blame him and kill him. The Spaniard's treat-
ment consisted in spells, and in permitting the wounded
man to eat and drink whatever he pleased, while the
Spaniard dieted himself rigorously. The patient died
and the Spaniard ran away. Pare was requested by the
Emperor's surgeon to embalm the body which he did
in the presence of the surgeon, and of many other phy-
sicians and surgeons and a large number of gentlemen.
Pare not only embalmed the body but delivered to those
assembled a learned discourse on anatomy. The Em-
peror's surgeon was so impressed that he tried to per-
suade Pare to remain with him, offering to clothe him
and give him a horse. But Pare declined, saying that
he had no desire to serve foreigners. To this patriotic
statement Pare naively appends the marginal note
"Brave response." The surgeon told him he was a
52 AMBROISE PARE
fool. But Pare had occasion to make the same reply
again to the Duke of Savoy himself, when that Prince,
having been told by the Emperor's physician of Pare's
skill, sent to ask him to enter his service. Pare sent
back his thanks but stated that he would never serve
a stranger. The Duke of Savoy was very angry and
said the surgeon deserved to be sent to the galleys.
Subsequently Monsieur de Vaudeville asked the Duke
of Savoy to send Pare to him to see if he could cure
a leg ulcer from which he had suffered for six or seven
years. Savoy sent him and de Vaudeville promised to
set him free if he succeeded in curing him. This Pare
did and thereby secured his freedom.
Pare hastened to King Henri II. The King received
him gladly, gave him 200 ecus and told him that when
he had heard of his capture he had sent word to his
wife that she need not be unhappy that he would pay
his ransom.
CHAPTER IV
I" IN 1554, when he was forty-four years
old, Pare was made a member of the
College de Saint Come, and thereby be-
1 came a master surgeon, a surgeon of the
long robe, instead of a barber-surgeon. The surgeons
of Paris were anxious to number among themselves
a^man of such prominence and weight at Court. Pare
knew no Latin and his examination for admission was
so conducted as to render it a farce. He was given his
letter of reception to the mastership without being re-
quired to pay the customary fees. Twenty-three years
later, in 1577, Jean Riolan, professor of anatomy at
Paris, wrote a pamphlet in which he ridiculed the man-
ner in which Pare had been received into the College
of Surgeons. However that may be, the surgeons cer-
tainly showed much practical wisdom in thus serving
him because it was probably due to Pare's influence
that the Faculte de Medecine attempted no more in-
terference with their affairs throughout the reign of
Pare's firm friend and patron Henri II.
Pare's elevation to membership in the College de
Saint Come furnishes an interesting chapter in the his-
53
54 AMBROISE PARE
tory of the controversy by which the Confrerie de Saint
Come succeeded in elevating itself to the rank of a
college, securing thereby the privileges accruing to its
affiliation with the Universite de France on an equal
basis with the Faculte de Medecine. The chief factor
in bringing about this improvement in the condition
of the French surgeons was one Etienne de la Riviere,
a native of Paris, and a warm friend of Fare's, who was
one of the witnesses on his part at his first marriage,
and was also associated with him in many other af-
fairs both professional and social. La Riviere began
his professional career as a barber-surgeon. He
worked as prosector for the anatomical demonstrations
given by Charles Etienne, a physician belonging to the
Faculte de Medecine. In 1539 Charles Etienne an-
nounced his intention of publishing a book on anatomy
based on these demonstrations for which Etienne de
la Riviere had made the dissections. The latter
claimed recognition of his share in the work and
laid his claims before the Parliament of Paris. After
an investigation by a commission composed of physi-
cians and surgeons, the Parliament acknowledged, in
1541, the justice of the claim. The Confrerie de Saint
Come was so glad of a victory won over its opponents
of the Faculte de Medecine that it proceeded to make
the barber-surgeon de la Riviere a member of its august
self. Thus when the book was finally published in
yCR IMPROBVS OMNIA VINCITT *
Ambroise Pare, at the Age of FoRXY-nvE.
(^Anatomie Uiwoerselle, 1561.)
LIFE AND TIMES 57
1545, Etienne de la Riviere figures as its author, with
the proud title of surgeon, instead of barber, appended
to his name. La Riviere became surgeon to the King,
and sworn surgeon to the Chatelet. Throughout his
career he lost no opportunity to advance the affairs of
the College de Saint Come, and it was largely at his
instigation and by his influence that Pare was brought
into its fellowship. Thus through its wisdom or policy
the College de Saint Come drew from the despised bar-
bers two members who not only did much to advance
its own interests, but also its standing in the world as
the exponent of French surgery.
Pare passed several years in Paris, working hard at
anatomy in preparation for a new edition of his book.
In 1557 the French army was defeated by the Span-
iards in the battle of St. Quentin. The Constable,
Anne de JNIontmorency, was wounded and taken pris-
oner. Henri II wished to send Pare to treat him but the
Duke of Savoy remembered him from the days of
Hesdin and refused to allow him access to the Spanish
camp, saying that there were plenty of surgeons to look
after the Constable, and that he knew Pare was privy
to other things than surgery and therefore might con-
vey information. Pare stayed at La Fere, whither the
French had retreated, and there dressed many of the .
wounded in the battle.
In 1558 he was sent by the King to Dourlan
58 AMBROISE PARE
(Doullens) which was being besieged by the Spaniards.
Pare changed places with his man servant and disguised
as a menial finally succeeded in entering the town.
In 1559 Pare met with a great loss by the death of
his master and steadfast friend Henri II, who was
wounded June 29, 1559. The fatal lance blow was
accidentally given during a tournament by Gabriel de
Montgomery, Comte de Lorges, captain of the Scotch
guard, who had been persuaded against his will to enter
the lists with the King. Pare was one of the surgeons
in attendance on the King and Vesalius was sent for
from Brussels. The King lived eleven days. The sur-
geons could not find the lance splinters which had pene-
trated the King's brain although they secured the heads
of four criminals that had been beheaded and experi-
mented upon them with a lance in order to ascertain
the probable course of the splinters. The lance struck
the king above the right eye. Pare says, "the muscular
skin of the forehead, over the bone, was torn across to
the inner angle of the left eye, and there were many
little fragments or splinters of the broken shaft lodged
in the eye ; but no fracture of the bone. Yet because of
such commotion or shaking of the brain, he died on the
eleventh day after he was struck. And after his death,
they found on the side opposite to the blow, towards the
middle of the commissure of the occipital bone, a quan-
tity of blood effused between the dura mater and the
Gabriel de Lorqif.s. Comte de Montgomery, Arrayed
FOR THE ToURXAMEXT
Henri II Receiving His Fatal Wound in the Joust with
Montgomery.
LIFE AND TIMES 61
pia mater : and alterations in the substance of the brain,
which was of a brownish or yellowish colour for about
the extent of one's thumb: at which place was found
a beginning of corruption: which were causes enough
of the death of my lord, and not only the harm done to
his eye."
Henri's successor, Francois II, retained Pare in his
position of chimrgien ordinaire du Roi. This prince
reigned but eighteen months. He was the husband of
Mary Queen of the Scots; had his life been preserved
her fate would probably have been very different.
There is a vague tradition that the young Queen was a
friend of Fare's and frequently conversed with him.
Balzac in his "Catherine de Medici" gives a vivid
though entirely imaginative picture of the deathbed of
Fran9ois II, in which he makes it appear that Ambroise
Fare wished to trephine the King and thought thereby
he could save his life. According to the tale Catherine
de Medici backed up by three court physicians refused
to allow him to perform the operation, as she wished
the young King, her own son, to die. Knowing that he
was completely under the influence of the Guises the
Queen hoped to regain her power by acting as regent
for her other son, Charles, who would succeed to the
throne.
Francois II died on the fifth of December, 1560, at
Orleans. Fare was brought into unenviable promi-
62 AMBROISE PARE
nence by his death. Malgaigne quotes the following re-
lation from an anonj^mous life of Admiral Coligny,
published in 1686, apparently based on family records.
It will be recalled that the Guises were at this time all
powerful in France. The Queen was their niece. They
had arrested Conde, the leader of the Huguenots, and
were seeking his death by legal forms.
When it was least thought of, the king suddenly felt a great
pain in his head, which obliged him to put himself to bed.
One would have thought that the trial of the Prince de Conde
would have been deferred, but the Guises, seeing how things
would change if they lost their hold of the Prince, hastened
the judgment against him so that he was condemned to lose
his head. When the Admiral (Coligny) heard of this order, he
sent for Ambroise Pare, surgeon of the king, under the pretext
that he was sick, and as he was one of his friends, and he knew
that he professed secretly the same religion, and demanded of
him in confidence what he thought of the illness of the king.
Pare told him that he thought he was in great peril, but that
he had not dared to say so because he feared making harm at
court. On which the Admiral told him he had done very wrong,
because he would have prevented the judgment of the Prince
de Conde, that he should go and publish this news, otherwise
their religion would lose the most firm support that it had.
Pare promised to repair his fault, which he did at once. All
the court was surprised, which had believed to the contrary
that the illness was nothing, especially because it had begun
to suppurate by the ear, that which made them think that na-
ture discharged itself there. The Chancellor, hearing the news,
Portrait of Francois ii
LIFE AND TIMES 63
sent for Pare to know if it was true, and he having confirmed
it, the other became ill from fear of signing the order. This
feigned illness lasted until one saw that the condition of the
king was desperate. Then he talked in a different manner to
the Queen Mother (Catherine de Medici), saying that the
Guises commenced to hold them in contempt, and urged her to
unite with the princes of the blood. She was disposed to be-
lieve this. Pare, having told this to the Admiral, whom he
continued to see whenever he did not have to be with the king,
the Admiral charged him with the negotiation.
Meanwhile the king died a few days later and the intrigues
during his illness made everyone believe his days had been
hastened. They suspected Pare of having put poison in his ear
when he dressed him, by order of the Queen Mother, who s&w
no other means of assuring her authority.
As Malgaigne says this suspicion does not warrant
attention. It is given the he by many circumstances
besides the character of Pare. Charles IX, Francois*
successor, again appointed him chirurgien ordinaire du
Boi, and took him into intimate confidence and esteem
One of the stories concerning the two which is often
repeated is that of the bezoar stone, and as it is gener-
ally told as a reflection on Pare, I shall give his own
version of it, as narrated in his book on poisons. I
must confess that I can see no reason why any blame
should be attached to him in the matter. Experimen-
tation on criminals was a common practice even many
years later. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
64 AMBROISE PARE
introduced inoculation for smallpox into England, the
method was tried first on certain criminals who were to
be given their liberty if they survived. This was in
1721, over one hundred and fifty years after Fare's
exploit. Charles IX had been presented with a bezoar
stone. These so-called stones are concretions which are
found in the intestinal tracts of certain animals. In-
troduced into medicine by the Arabs, they were held in
great esteem as universal antidotes.
Charles IX was very proud of his bezoar stone. He
spoke of it to Pare who told him that there was no such
thing as a universal antidote. Pare suggested that its
efficacy could easily be tested on some rascal who had
been sentenced to be hung. The king sent for his pro-
vost and asked him if he had any prisoner who merited
hanging. "He told him that he had in his prison a cook,
who had stolen two silver plates from his master, and
that the next day was to be hung and strangled. The
King told him he wished to experiment with a stone
which they said was good against all poisons, and that
he should ask the said cook after his condemnation
if he would take a certain poison, and that they would
at once give him an antidote; to which the said cook
very willingly agreed, saying that he liked much better
to die of said poison in the prison, than to be strangled
in view of the people. And then an apothecary gave
him a certain poison in a drink and at once the bezoar
LIFE AND TIMES 65
stone. Having these two good drugs in his stomach he
took to vomiting and purging, saying that he was burn-
ing inside, and calling for water to drink, which was
not denied him. An hour later, having been told that
the cook had taken this good drug, I prayed Monsieur
de la Trousse (the provost) to let me to see him, which
he accorded, accompanied by three of his archers, and
found the poor cook on all fours, going like an animal,
his tongue hanging from his mouth, his eyes and face
flaming, retching and in a cold sweat, bleeding from
his ears, nose and mouth. I made him drink about one
half sextier of oil, thinking to aid him and save his life,
but it was no use because it was too late, and he died
miserably, crying it would have been better to have
died on the gibbet. He lived about seven hours."
Pare performed an autopsy which showed that he had
died of a gastroenteritis from corrosive sublimate
poisoning.
In 1561 Pare published two important books, his
book on wounds of the head and his "Anatomic Uni-
verselle." ^
Sir William Osler^ has recently described a copy
*"La Methode Curative des playes, et fractures de la teste humaine,
avec les portraits des instruments necessaires pour la curation d'icelles," and
"Anatomie Universelle du corps humain, composee par A. Pare, chirurgien
ordinaire du ray et jure a Paris: revue et augmentee par le dit auteur, avec
I. Rostaing du Bignose Provencal aussi chirurgien jure a Paris." The
latter owes much to plates from the French edition of Vesalius, which
had appeared in 1559, but, as Malgaigne states, Pare's book was long
esteemed as a textbook of anatomy for surgeons.
''Ann. Med. Hut., i, 424.
66 AMBROISE PARE
of the "Anatomic Universelle" which he had procured in
Paris. As he states the book is so rare that JMalgaigne
knew of but two copies, one in the Bibhotheque Sainte
Genevieve, the other in private hands in Bar-le-Duc.
Neither the Library of the Surgeon General in Wash-
ington, the British Museum, nor the Bodleian Library
has a copy of this book. It is accompanied by a copper
plate engravmg of a portrait of the author, at the age
of forty-five, which Sir William thought was by far the
most pleasing which has descended to us.
In the same year, 1561, Pare had his leg broken by
the kick of a horse, which confined him to bed for sev-
eral months. He describes his accident and the treat-
ment of it at length in his book on fractures. He was
making a professional call on horseback, as was his
custom, in company with Richard Hubert and Antoine
Portail, to a small village near Paris. In attempting
to make the horse get on the boat to cross the ferry,
Pare switched him, whereupon the horse kicked him
upon his leg, causing a compound fracture of both
bones. Portail and Hubert set his leg and applied the
first dressing. He prayed them to forget their old
friendship and treat his leg just as they would that of
an ordinary patient. Hubert and Portail were barber-
surgeons. When they had brought him back to Paris
he was cared for "de mes compagnons Chirurgiens de
Paris," especially Etienne de la Riviere. It is sad to
VNIVERSELLE DV
Corps huinain,compof€e pat A- Par^
Chirurgien ordinaire du Ro.y,& lure a
Paris : reueue &c augraentee par ledit au-
theur auec I. Roftaingdu Bignofc Pro-
uen^al aufsi Chirurgien lure a Paris.
&ftv.
Ve^fmpr'imcne de lehan U linyer, Impnmeur dul^f^
^athematlqUef i demeurcnt en UrueS. la^ufs, a
fenfe'tgne du Vuy Fot'ier,f)res Us Mathimns,
XT 6l»
LIFE AND TIMES 69
find that subsequently he and Portail had some kind
of a quarrel, and in the later editions of his works
Pare does not mention his name as having helped him.®
Both Hubert and Portail later advanced from the rank
of barber-surgeons to master surgeons.
By 1562 Pare was again fit to undertake his jour-
neys and he accompanied Charles IX to the sieges of
Bourges and Rouen. At the latter the mortality
among the wounded from infection was very great.
Pare attributed it to the malignity of the air. Among
those who died was the King of Navarre, Pare's good
friend. He was one of the surgeons who dressed the
King's wound, and the latter bequeathed him six
thousand livres. The surgeons had been unable to ex-
tract the ball from the wound which was in the shoulder.
Pare performed an autopsy, and in the presence of
many witnesses removed the ball from the middle of
the bone, where he had said it was lodged.
This siege of Rouen marks another epoch in Pare's
surgical experiences for from this time he found the
use of the oil made from puppies as a dressing for gun-
shot wounds did not give as good results as the dressing
of the wounds with Egyptiacum, a preparation made
with honey and alum, much commended by John of
Vigo. Later he used a dressing of turpentine and
•He was related to Pard through his marriage with Jacqueline de
Prime.
70 AMBROISE PARE
brandy. The campaign of 1562 was the first in which
we find Pare accompanying the Royal army in its cam-
paign against the Huguenots. Conde and Fare's
friend CoHgny were the active leaders of the party upon
which Charles IX was waging war. After the victory
won by the Royalists at Dreux, in December 1562, Pare
dressed many of the wounded. Conde was taken pris-
oner by the Royalists, but the Huguenots captured
Anne de Montmorenci. The Peace of Amboise was
signed shortly after the murder of Guise in 1563.
The year 1564 witnessed the publication of Pare's
surgery.® It will be noticed that the author now bears
the title, premier chirurgien du Roi. He took the oath
as first surgeon to the King at Saint-Germain-en-Laye
on January 1, 1562, succeeding the deceased Nicole
Lavernot.
In 1564, Pare started with Charles IX, the Queen
Regent (Catherine de Medici) and the entire court on
a royal progress through France. This journey lasted
nearly two years and was undertaken as a political cam-
paign against the Huguenots. In its course Pare
visited most of the large cities and towns of France and
picked up a great amount of curious, interesting in-
formation. While at Montpellier he was bitten by a
viper. He was watching an apothecary who was mak-
'Dix livres de la Chirurgerie avec le magasin des instruments necessaires
a icelle, par Ambroise Pare, premier chirurgien du roy et jure a Paris.
The Constable Anne ue Montmorenci
{From a paintiiic/ in the Louvre hi) Lioiiard Simoiixhi.)
Cutting Up a Whale.
(^Pare, Edition 1585.)
LIFE AND TIMES 73
ing some theriaca, the universal antidote for poisons.
This mixture contained amongst its many ingredients
vipers, and Pare was looking at those which the apothe-
cary was going to use when one of them bit him be-
neath the nail of his first finger. Pare tied the finger
around tightly above the wound, then moistened some
old theriac ointment in brandy, and soaking some cot-
ton in it applied it over the wound. He experienced no
ill-effects. He had an opportunity to study the plague,
from which he himself once suffered an attack, and of
which his observations and experiences enabled him to
write an excellent treatise. At Biarritz he learned how
the inhabitants caught whales, and procured a whale's
vertebrfe which he treasured as a curiosity.
When the Court returned to Paris the city was in the
throes of an epidemic of smallpox. Pare, although a
surgeon, treated many cases. Many of the nobility
suffered from the disease, among them Charles IX and
his sister Marguerite de Valois, who married Henri of
Navarre. Pare treated Charles IX for a contracture
of the arm which followed a venesection said to have
been made by Antoine Portail during the king's attack
of smallpox. Portail had wounded a nerve. "The king
remained three months and more without power to flex
or extend his arm; nevertheless (graces a Dieu) he re-
covered without the slightest impairment of motion."*®
" MaJgaigne's edition of Par6, ii, 115.
T
CHAPTER V
HE religious wars broke out again and
once more Pare was busy with the armies.
After the battle of St. Denis, in 1567,
he dressed many of the wounded, most
of whom were removed to Paris. The Constable,
Anne de Montmorenci, had received a fatal pistol
shot wound in the spine. Pare was sent by the king
to attend him at the request of Madame de Mont-
morenci. The surgeon was at Plessis le Tours with the
Court in 1569, when news was brought that the Royal
army had won the battle of Moncontour. Many of the
wounded were brought to Tours where Pare and other
surgeons dressed them. The Count of Mansfield, who
had fought valiantly for the King, received a bad shot
wound of the elbow. He was taken to Borgueil, from
whence he sent to the King requesting him to send one of
his surgeons to his aid. The Mareschal de Montmorenci
told the King and the Queen INIother that as Mansfield
had done so much to secure the victory, they should send
Pare to dress him, but the King flatly refused, saying
that he did not wish Pare to go from him. Catherine
de Medici, however, explained to Charles that Pare
74
LIFE AND TIMES 75
would but go and come right back, and that as the
Count of Mansfield was a foreigner who had come to
their aid, having been sent with the Spanish troops by
command of the King of Spain, they should do their
best for him. Charles finally consented and Pare was
sent to the Count with a letter from the King and Queen
Mother. At Borgueil Pare found many other
wounded noblemen whom he dressed. The Count Rhin-
grave died of a wound similar to that which killed the
King of Navarre at Rouen; Monsieur de Bassompierre
was wounded in the same manner as the Count of Mans-
field, "whom I dressed and God healed him" (que je
pensay et Dieu la guarist) . "God blessed so well my
work, that in three weeks I sent him to Paris, where it
was yet necessary to make some incisions in the arm of
the Count of Mansfield, to extract the bone which was
greatly spHntered, broken and carious. He recovered
by the Grace of God and made me a worthy present, of
a sort that I was well contented with him and he with
me.
Mansfield wrote to Monsieur le Due d'Arschot tell-
ing him how well Pare had treated him, with the result
that the Due d'Arschot sent one of his gentlemen to the
King to beseech him to send Pare to see what he could
do for his brother, the Marquis d'Auret, who was lying
at the Chateau d'Auret, near Mons, suffering from a
gunshot wound of the leg, received seven months pre-
76 AMBROISE PARE
viously and still unhealed. The King consented to send
Pare who thereupon set out for d'Auret. He gives a
lengthy description of his management of the case, which
occupied him two months, during which he stayed at the
chateau with the Marquis. The result was fortunate
for both Marquis and surgeon. The former recovered
entirely. Pare was feted and made much of. At part-
ing Madame la Duchesse d'Arschot drew a diamond
ring, worth more than fifty ecus, from her finger, and
presented it to him, and the Marquis gave him a present
of great value. While in attendance on the Marquis,
Pare made a little tour of Flanders going to Antwerp,
Mahnes, and Brussels, in all of which places the prin-
cipal citizens showed him much honor.
In 1567 Pare made an attempt to bring all those
who should undertake to practice surgery in France un-
der the jurisdiction of the premier surgeon to the king,
an office then held by himself. Heretofore the premier
barber-surgeon to the King had been the ostensible head
of not only the barber-surgeons but also the surgeons.
Le Paulmier says that the Faculte de Medecine had
connived at this arrangement as an aid in maintaining
its own superiority over the surgeons. Pare suppH-
cated the King (Charles IX) to this effect, and he in
turn referred the matter to the Faculte de Medecine,
ordering them to consult with some of the surgeons and
give him their advice. Fare's request was that he as
LIFE AND TIMES 77
premier surgeon should be placed over all those prac-
ticing surgery, and that no one should be allowed to
practice that profession in France without his authori-
zation or the authorization of certain persons to be .
named by him, with whom should be associated two
physicians. This last promise was obviously intended
as a sop to the Faculte de Medecine. Pare had already
secured the assent of the physicians to the King, but
Camusat, the premier barber-surgeon and the sworn sur-
geons were quick to take alarm. Such a strong oppo-
sition was developed that Fare's project was defeated.
As Le Paulmier states it remained for Felix Fagon,
premier surgeon to Louis XIV, to finally free the sur-
geons from their subjection to the premier barber-sur-
geon of the King.
After 1559 Pare no longer followed the armies but
lived and labored in Paris, the city for which he ex-
presses his love in so many places throughout his works.
He seems to have passed all his life in Paris in the house
or houses which he owned near the Pont Saint Michel.
Here he gathered around him various relatives. Most
of them lived in houses which Pare had acquired from
time to time. He was very generous and charitable,
and not only adopted a nephew and niece, but also
gave much financial assistance to other persons with
whom he had no blood relationship. In 1568 Pare pub-
lished his treatises on the plague, smallpox, and
yg AMBROISE PARE
measles," based on his personal observation of these
diseases. This little book treating of subjects apper-
taining more to medicine than surgery was written at
the suggestion of the Queen Mother, Catherine de
Medici.^- Pare says that he had seen many plague-
stricken patients during his service at the Hotel Dieu
and subsequently, and that he had himself suffered from
the disease. He states his belief that the plague is sent
directly by God as a manifestation of his wrath but
he warns the surgeon "not to neglect the remedies ap-
proved by physicians both ancient and modern: for as
by the will of God this disease is sent among men so
by His holy will He gives us methods and remedies, to
use them as instruments for His glory." His prac-
tical measures in regard to hygiene and quarantine are
excellent in most respects, although he followed the
generally prevalent idea that bonfires of aromatic
woods, such as juniper and pine, should be made
"Traicte de la Peste, de la petit verolle et. rougcolle avec une briefue
description de la lepre.
"It is curious to study the different views which prevail among con-
temporary writers as well as among the modern concerning Catherine de
Medici. Brautome, in his "Vies des Dames Illustres," pictures her as a
beautiful woman, full of grace and amiability, praising especially the
beauty of her complexion and her hands. He says she was devoted to her
husband, her father-in-law, and her children, a good queen who loved
France and only wished for peace. Henri IV, in 1600, spoke of her in
the following terms, remarkable when one considers the relations existmg
between them during the queen's life. "But, I pray you, what could a
poor woman do, having by the death of her husband five small children
in her arms, and two families who thought to seize the crown, mine and
the Guises? It was necessary that she should use d'Hranges personnages
to deceive the one and the other, and meanwhile guard, as she did, her
children, who have successively reigned by the sage conduct of a woman
so wise. I am astonished she did not do worse."
Catharine de Medici
{From (III iiiinii/iicil I'lKji-arhni hi Hibllothlque Saiiite G'enevih'e.)
LIFE AND TIMES 79
throughout the streets to purify the air. He humanely
urges that, "The magistrates must have all sick folks
attended by physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries,
good men, of experience : and must treat them that are
attacked and isolate them, sending them to places set
apart for their treatment, or must shut them up in their
own houses (but this I do not approve, and would
rather they should forbid those that are healthy to hold
any converse with them) and must send men to dress
and feed them, at the expense of the patients, if they
have the means, but if they are poor, then at the expense
of the parish. Also they must forbid the citizens to put
up for sale the furniture of those who have died of
the plague." He recommended that surgeons called to
attend patients should first be purged and bled, and
then have two issues made, one on the right arm, an-
other on the left leg, as those who have such open sores
do not contract the plague. They should use an aromatic
compound mixed with theriac as a wash to purify their
bodies, and wear a little sachet containing an aromatic
powder, also compounded with theriac, over the heart.
Pare gives a vivid description of the cruelty engendered
in the inhabitants of plague-stricken cities by the panic
which prevailed in them. Let us give Catherine de
Medici credit for one good deed in her dark life and
consider ourselves beholden to her for having caused
Pare to write a book of so much value. In the edi-
8o AMBROISE PARE
tions of the book which appeared in 1568 and 1575
Pare concluded with a long dissertation breathing the
most profound piety in which with many scriptural
quotations he describes life as a constant warfare and
misery and death as in most instances a blessed relief,
and urges all to prepare their minds, and help others
in their last days to prepare theirs to meet the righteous
Judge. He makes no mention of the aids afforded by
the priesthood and the whole discourse has a very strong
tinge of the Religion (as the faith professed by the
Huguenots was termed) in contrast with Cathohcism.
In the edition of 1575 (thi-ee years after the massacre
of St. Bartholomew) he added the following as though
he might have been admonished in the interval:
ADVERTISEMENT OF THE AUTHOR
The author has made this little admonition for the young
surgeon, finding himself sometimes in places where there are
no priests, nor any other men of the church at the death of
poor plague stricken. As I have seen when the King Charles
being at Lyons during the great mortality, where they en-
closed in the houses of the rich a surgeon for the treatment of
those who were plague stricken, without being able to be suc-
coured by anyone to console them in the extremity of death;
and the said surgeon having been instructed by this little
admonition, will be able to serve at necessity instead of a
greater cleric than he. And I wish not here to pass the limits
of my vocation but only to aid the poor plague stricken in the
extremity of death.
LIFE AND TIMES 81
Death is the fear of the rich.
The desire of the poor.
The joy of the wise.
The fear of the wicked.
End of all miseries.
Commencement of the life eternal.
Fortunate to the elect.
Unfortunate to the reprobates.
In this treatise on "The Pest," Pare makes the first
reference Malgaigne was able to find in medical liter-
ature to the discovery at autopsy of metastatic abscesses
of the internal organs following wounds. Pare states
that they occur in the liver and lungs and are due to
corruption in the blood.
Pare was living in Paris when the thunderbolt of
the Massacre of Saint Batholomew was launched on the
heads of the French Protestants. Although many be-
lieve that the plot to massacre the Protestants had been
conceived in 1565, seven years before, at the interview
between the Queen Mother and Alva at Bayonne, there
are some who think it occurred as the result of a sud-
den panic among the Catholics of the Court on the
night of the massacre itself. Throughout the short
reign of Francois II and that of his successor, Charles
IX, there had been constantly increasing warfare be-
tween the Catholic party led by the Due de Guise, the
Cardinal of Lorraine, and Anne de Montmorenci, and
82 AMBROISE PARE
the Protestants led by the Prince de Conde, Admiral
Coligny, and the latter's brothers. In August, 1572,
the marriage which had been arranged between Henri
of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois, sister of Charles
IX, was to be celebrated in Paris. Henri being a
Huguenot the marriage ceremony was held just in
Park's Open Splint for Compound Fractures or Gunshot
Wounds of the Forearm.
front of, but not within the Cathedi^al de Notre Dame.
All Henri's friends, the chief leaders of the Huguenot
party, had come to Paris, under special passports and
safeguards, for the occasion. The Guises and their
adherents were, of course, with the Court. Admiral
Coligny was made much of by the King and he and
his party felt themselves secure in the Royal protec-
tion. On August 22 about eleven o'clock in the morning,
as Coligny was walking from his house to the Louvre,
a shot was fired at him from a window, cutting off the
index finger of his right hand and then ploughing up
through his left arm to the elbow. His followers dashed
aASPARDECOLlGKYS^DECBA STJLLONCHLR • BEL'oRDRE-
DV.ROY.CiOV'DEPARlSlShVZin:FRANCi!LPlCAKT)JERT'
ART()KSCO{.ONEL.(?NALDKL'lNfVANTERJEFRv\AHUALDE
KR-LEXINOV.l5j;:2-AIORTLEXXIV.A()\'^5T.I^72A-57AN.S.
LIFE AND TIMES 83
into the house from whence the shot had come but the
scoundrel who had fired made his escape from the rear
on horseback. He was a servant of the Guises named
Maurevert, the house belonged to that family, and the
horse on which he escaped had come from their stables.
Pare was sent for and dressed Coligny's arm, ampu-
tating the injured finger. The same day the King
and the Queen Mother went with solemn hypocrisy to
pay a visit of sjmipathy to the wounded Admiral.
Meanwhile the excitement in Paris was intense. The
Huguenots threatened reprisals for the injury to their
chief, and a rumor spread among the Catholics that
the Huguenots were going to storm the Louvre, carry
off the King and Queen Mother, and massacre all the
Guises and their adherents. A conference between the
Kins* and the Queen Mother and the Catholic leaders
resulted in a determination to anticipate any hostile ac-
tion on the part of the Huguenots by a general mas-
sacre of them. The signal was to be given by sounding
the bell on the Church of Saint Germain L'Auxerois.
It is said that Charles IX held out against the final de-
cision of the conference as long as possible, finally giv-
ing way with the exclamation that they might kill the
Huguenots, but that if they started the massacre they
must continue it until they had exterminated all the
Huguenots, so that not one should remain to reproach
him afterwards. The conspirators did their best to ful-
84 AMBROISE PARE
fill his desire. De Thou, the historian, estimates the
number killed in Paris at 2,000, but other estimates
are much larger. Coligny was murdered in his bed-
chamber, and his body, thrown from the window on to
the pavement below before life was extinct, landed at
the feet of the Due de Guise who had personally led the
soldiers who sought him. The thrill of horror which
went through England, the Low Countries, and the rest
of the Protestant world was counterbalanced by the
joy and exultation of the Catholics. His Holiness the
Pope Gregory XIII ordered a Te Deum and a medal
struck to commemorate this triumph of Holy Church.
Philip II said it was the greatest joy of his life and
added quite correctly that it would be the greatest title
to the glory of Charles IX in the eyes of posterity.
The subject of Pare's religious belief has been most
vehemently discussed. Malgaigne decides that he was
a Catholic, and he certainly conformed externally to
that faith. He was twice married by the rites of that
church, once at St. Andre des Arts, and the second
time at St. Severin; his children were baptized in that
faith, and he was buried in it. He passed most of his
life at a bigoted Catholic court, during the heat of the
wars of religion, and was the personal attendant of
kings who were bent on repressing the Religion at all
costs; nevertheless there are several reasons which can
The Murder of Admiral Coligny.
LIFE AND TIMES 87
be advanced in support of the belief that he was of the
Religion. In the life of Coligny, compiled from family-
archives but pubHshed, as Malgaigne points out, more
than a century after the event, the statement is made
that he was "secretement huguenot."
In the memoirs of Sully, the great Prime Minister
of Henry IV: ''»
Of all those near the prince (Charles IX) there was no
one so much in hts confidence as Ambroise Pare. This man,
who was only his surgeon, had taken with him so great famil-
iarity, although he was Huguenot, that this prince having said
to him on the day of the massacre, that this was the hour
when it was necessary for everybody to make themselves Cath-
olic, Pare responded, without being moved, "By the light of
God, Sire, I believe that you will remember having promised
never to demand of me four things, to wit, to enter again into
the womb of my mother, to take care of myself on the day of
battle, to quit your service, and to go to mass." The king took
him aside and opened to him the trouble with which he felt
himself agitated: "Ambroise," said he to him, "I know not
what has come over me since two or three days, but I find
my spirit and body so much shaken as if I had the fever. It
seems to me at every moment, waking as much as sleeping, that
these massacred bodies present themselves to me, their faces
hideous and covered with blood. I only wish they did not
comprise among them imbeciles or innocents." The order that
was published the following days to stop the killing was the
fruit of this conversation.
"■ Memoires de Maximilian de Bethune Due de Sully, ed. 1768, i, 65.
88 AMBROISE PARE
Malgaigne discounts this conversation because Sully,
although in Paris at the time of the massacre, was but
twelve years old; that he fled from the city immedi-
ately afterwards and did not return for twenty years;
and because of the foolishness (niaserie) of Fare's
statement to the king. However that may be, the prime
minister of Henry IV was certainly au fait with the
history of the Huguenot movement and some weight
must be attached to his positive statements in the mat-
ter. Again, Brantome in his memoirs, writing of
Coligny's death, states that Pare "was very huguenot"
{estoit fort huguenot) , and that Charles IX "crying
incessantly: 'kill, kill' wished to save no one, except
Master Ambroise Pare, his first surgeon, and the first
of the Christianity ; and he sent to seek him and for him
to come that evening into his chamber, and dressing
room, commanding him not to budge from it, and said
it was not right that one who could save so many poor
people should be thus massacred, and that he would
not press him to change his religion any more than he
would his nurse."
One other very significant story is told by Pare him-
self. In the 1575 edition of his works, he tells how
after the siege of Rouen, in 1562, he was dining in
the company of some "who hated me to death for the
Religion" {qui me hayoyent a mort pour la Religion),
when he was suddenly taken violently ill after taking
LIFE AND TIMES 89
a mouthful of cabbage. He asserts that it contained
either corrosive sublimate or arsenic. He caused him-
self to vomit, drank a quantity of oil and milk, and ate
some eggs, whereby he reheved himself. This narra-
tive is omitted from subsequent editions of his works
published in his lifetime.
Le Paulmier^^ is convinced that Pare was a Hu-
guenot and as a proof brings forward a statement made
by Pare himself in a memoir written by him in 1575
in response to the attack made upon his works by the
Faculte de Medecine. In its course Pare states that he
belonged to "the Religion" and that this fact had been
made use of by his enemies. This memoir was un-
known to Malgaigne. It was referred to by Turner,^*
but was first published by Le Pauhnier, who unearthed
it from the Bibliotheque Nationale and printed it in
full at the end of his book.
Malgaigne's opinion was that at least so far as the
external forms of religion went Pare was undoubtedly
Catholic, but he was tied by friendship to Coligny and
his sympathies were with the persecuted sect. We can-
not figure a man of his kind disposition as a bigoted
fanatic on either side of a religious controversy, but I
believe Le Paulmier's discovery has cleared up the
whole matter and that we must take Ambroise's own
"Ambrdise Pare d'apres de nouveaux Documents, 80.
"(?az. heb. de med., 1879, no. 24.
90 AMBROISE PARE
statement as the truth of it. Possibly after the Mas-
sacre of Saint Bartholomew he decided that it was wiser
to become reconciled to the Catholic party than to pub-
licly profess a religion which would have meant the loss
of his peace of mind and prosperity in his profession.
There are two other great figures in sixteenth-cen-
tury France, one of them the ordained priest Rabelais,
the other the courtier Montaigne, whose writings show
that they disapproved of the measures adopted by the
leaders of the faith which they externally professed.
Both of them could be truthfully styled un peu hugue-
not. Pare, as so many of his profession in all ages, was
profoundly impressed with the internal verities of re-
ligion, but was above the pettiness of the ecclesiastical
squabbles which hamper so much real religion. INIon-
taigne, Rabelais, and Pare were probably all of them
disgusted with the cruelties practiced in the name of
religion, and especially were they revolted by the oppo-
sition of dogma to the free thought which was burst-
ing forth in their age. Pare was not a man to busy
himself with foolish subtleties. His was a practical life,
full of hard work, much of it of a most self-sacrificing
character. He could well afford to stand aloof and,
occupied in his own sphere, follow his life in his own
way. His life was at any rate a refutation of the state-
ment common in his time as in others "ubi tres medici,
duo athei."
LIFE AND TIMES 91
Villaume reports a curious conversation between
Catherine and Pare, which Malgaigne rejects because
he was unable to find its original source. The Queen
JNIother asked Pare one day if he expected to be saved
in the next world. Pare replied, "Yes, certainly, Mad-
ame, for I have done that which I could to be a brave
man in this, and God, who is merciful, understands well
all tongues, and is even as content that one should pray
to him in French as in Latin."
One other point about his treatise on the plague.
In the first edition Pare had stated that antimony was
of service in certain cases of the plague. But the Fac-
ulte de Medecine had solemnly decreed against it as a
poison and ordered the expulsion from their midst of
anyone who should prescribe it. When he first re-pub-
lished the treatise in his collected works in 1575, he
let the passage stand as in the separate treatise, but in
the second edition of his collected works (1579) he de-
ferred to the Faculty and in place of what he had writ-
ten before he wrote that "some approve and greatly
recommend antimony, alleging many experiences they
have had with it. As, however, the use of it is reproved
by messieurs of the Faculte de Medecine, I will refrain
from writing anything of it in this place."
In 1572 Pare published another work on surgery^^
"^Cinq Livres de Ch'irurgie. Although this book is known to have
been published by Pare and is mentioned by Haller in his Bibliotheca
Chirurgica, there is no known copy of it in existence at the present time.
92 AMBROISE PARE
in which he wrote of tumors and also attacked the book
pubhshed by Le Paulmier in 1569. The writer after
plagiarizing largely from Fare's book on wounds, had
the audacity to attribute to him the frightful mortality
which prevailed among the wounded at Rouen and af-
ter the battles of Dreux and St. Denis. Le Paulmier
was a member of the Faculte de Medecine and it made
a great scandal to see such a contest between the great-
est of the surgeons of Saint Come and a member of the
faculty.
The year 1573 marked an epoch in Fare's life. At
this time he published another surgical work^^ which
contained his book on "Monsters" with the treatise on
obstetrics. It will be recalled that in 1549 Fare had
published a little work on anatomy to which was ap-
pended a short treatise on obstetrics. In the "Deux
livres de chirurgie," pubhshed in 1573, the part entitled,
"De la generation de I'homme, et maniere d'extraire
les enfants hors du ventre de la mere," is a much more
elaborate work on obstetrics. In this Fare, however,
omitted any mention of what we must regard as his
greatest claim to distinction as an obstetrician, namely,
the induction of artificial labor by manual means, when
"Deux Livres de Chirurgie I. De la generation de rhomme, et maniere
d'extraire les enfants hors du ventre de la mere, ensemble ce qu'il faut
faire pour la faire mieux et plustost accoucher, avec le cure de plusiers
maladies qui lui peuvent survenir. II. Des Monstres tant terrestres que
maras avec leurs portraits. Plus un petit traits des plaies fa'ites aux
parties nerveuses.
LIFE AND TIMES 93
the mother's life is in peril. Malgaigne has proved con-
clusively that the credit of this innovation in obstetric
practice should be ascribed to Pare, although it has been
erroneously ascribed to others. Thus Louise Bour-
geois, the celebrated French midwife, in her book pub-
lished in 1609 claims the discovery for herself, although
by her own e\'idence she had never put it in practice
before the year 1602, whereas Guillemeau, in his book
"L'heureux accouchement," published very shortly af-
ter that of Louise Bourgeois, tells how in 1599 he de-
livered Fare's own daughter by inducing labor in the
manner which, he states, he had seen practiced by Fare
twenty-five years before. Curiously Fare only says that
potions, baths, suffumigations with sternutatories, emet-
ics, and the application of various medicaments within
the vagina, should be used if the mother's strength is
sufficient to bear them. Why Fare should have thus
omitted mention of the method which he himself had
used with success remains a complete mystery.
The book on monsters should be read in its entirety
as it illustrates the extent to which a scientific mind,
such as Fare's, was yet trammelled by the ignorance
and superstition of his age. Thus among the causes
of monsters he enumerates the glory of God, His ire,
and the activities of demons and devils. He quotes the
restoration of sight to the blind by Jesus Christ, as
given in the Gospel of St. John, as an instance of a man
94 AMBROISE PARE
who was made blind for the glory of God. Monstrous
bu'ths which result from God's anger are those which
result from disobedience of the laws of sexual hygiene
such as are laid down by ]Moses in Leviticus. Pare
states that no one can doubt the existence of sorcerers,
since it is witnessed by many learned men both ancient
and modern, and by the enactment of laws against them
(which would not be decreed if sorcerers did not exist) ;
Moses also, he mentions, expressly condemns them in
Exodus and Leviticus. Likewise there certainly are
demons and devils in the air, on the earth, and within
man himself. Pare says he himself saw a sorcerer, pos-
sessed of a devil, who did marvelous things in the pres-
ence of Charles IX and his nobles. He writes with be-
coming awe of the succubi and incubi, although he does
not claim to have any personal knowledge of their do-
ings. In the 1585 edition he added a paragraph in
which he said, "As for me, I believe that this cohabi-
tation is imaginary, proceeding from an illusory impres-
sion of Satan."
Pare states that he himself has seen cures wrought
by spells. "I have seen the jaundice disappear from
the surface of the body in a single night by means of a
little cachet suspended to the neck of the patient." He
also mentions having seen a hemorrhage checked by cer-
tain words spoken in Latin. After recounting many
cures on hearsay by magical spells he says: "It is cer-
LIFE AND TIMES 95
tain that sorcerers cannot cure natural diseases, nor
physicians the diseases caused by sorceries."
The book on monsters contains the description of
two specimens of monstrous births which Pare had in
his own house. He presents them as might any mod-
ern teratologist without reverting to any supernatural
explication as to their etiology. Pare was a firm be-
liever in the powerful effects of prenatal impressions
and he gives instances in support of his opinion.
Clubbed feet or hands he attributes to the mother, be-
lieving that she either sat in a faulty position or laced
her abdomen too tightly during pregnancy.
Pare wrote at length on a topic which occupied much
attention among his contemporaries, namel}-, the chang-
ing of sex, whereby according to the cuiTent belief in-
dividuals who were, apparently, girls or women became
changed from the female to the male sex. The explan-
ation of these cases is probably to be found in the de- '
layed descent of the testicles. Pare, as stated before,
relates the case of Marie Germain, whom he saw at
Vitry-le-Francois. This child was regarded as a girl
until at the age of fifteen, when she was running hard,
the true sexual characteristics suddenly developed.
Montaigne in his "Essays" (Chapter XX, Book I),
tells how he also saw Marie at Vitry-le-Francois, but he
gives the date of the change of sex as the twenty-second
year.
96 AMBROISE PARE
Pare recites the histories of several cases of vesical
calculus, operated upon by one or the other of the
Colots and gives pictures of the specimens of the stones
which were presented to him by these doctors. Mal-
gaigne directs attention to the fact that Pare himself
had never operated for stone in the bladder until after
this book appeared. He speaks in the highest terms
of the skill of the Colots.
Pare tells some excellent stories of the tricks prac-
ticed by beggars to feign injuries and diseases. His
brother Jean, the surgeon at Vitre, as mentioned pre-
viously, was especially expert at the detection of these
cozeners.
As an instance of the wit with which the writings
of Pare sparkle, the following may be cited. In writ-
ing of alopecia Pare says, "If it is due to syphilis, the
patient should be rubbed (with mercurial ointment)
until he enters the kingdom of Bavaria," (jusque a ce
qu'il eritre an royaiume de Baviere) a play on the
French word, haver, to salivate.
CHAPTER VI
N November the fourth, 1573, Fare's wife,
Jeanne Mazelin, died and was buried on
the same day in the Church of St. Andre
des Arts. She was fifty-three years old
and was survived by one daughter, Catherine, aged
thirteen years. The two sons died in infancy. Pare
had also living with him at this time Jeanne Pare,
the daughter of his brother Jean, the cabinet maker,
whom he had adopted. Only three months after his
first wife's death on January 18, 1574, Pare mar-
ried Jacqueline Rousselet, whose father, Jacques
Rousselet, was chevaucher ordinaire of the stables of
the king. His wife, Marie Boullaie, was of good fam-
ily. The bride's witnesses were all persons of good es-
tate, namely, Robert Boullaie, secretary of the premier
president of Dauphine and rran9ois Bouterone, advo-
cate in the court of Parlement. Pare's sole witness was
Hilaire de Brion, master-apothecary, grocer, and bour-
geois of Paris. Jacqueline Rousselet brought Pare five
thousand livres tournois as her dot, and he settled an an-
nual income of five hundred livres tournois on her. Pare
subsequently took but two thousand livres tournois of
Jacquehne's dowry.
G7
g8 AMBROISE PARE
Some days before the marriage Pare bestowed on
his niece, Jeanne Mazelin, a house near the Pont Saint
Michel. He also gave her one hundred livres tournois
of rent with the sole condition that he reserved the usu-
fructs from the house and the rental during his life and
that, if Jeanne died without leaving children, the gifts
should revert to him. By his second wife Pare had six
children, although he was sixty-four years old at the
time of his marriage.
Through Le Paulmier's researches we are able to
follow somewhat the lives of Pare's children and his
other relatives. His niece Jeanne, daughter of his
brother Jean, married Claude Viart on the twenty-sev-
enth of March, 1577. Viart had lived for twenty years
in Pare's house as his assistant. He was a master sur-
geon of Nantes, and had served as surgeon in the army.
The match evidently pleased the bride's uncle who, in
addition to the house and money which he had already
bestowed on Jeanne and now gave her outright, pre-
sented the bridegroom with his long black robe with
velvet trimmings, all his surgical instruments, the sur-
gical plates which had been published in his last book
(the complete edition of 1575), costing more than one
thousand ecus, and most of his books published or to
be published. He reserved for himself only the usu-
fruct of these gifts during his life. Viart was in very
good circumstances as he was able to give his wife a
LIFE AND TIMES 99
dowry of one hundred and fifty livres tournois. Claude
Viart was living in June 1582 when he assisted with
Pare at an operation by a master barber-surgeon named
Charbonnel, as related by Pare in his "Apology," but
he had died before INIarch 1584, as Le Paulmier found
a quittance of that date given by his widow. Jeanne
was married again on January 11, 1588, to Francois
Forest of Orleans, by whom she had a son also named
Francois.
Fare's daughter Catherine, by his first wife, married
on March 28, 1581, Francois Rousselet, the brother of
her stepmother, by whom she had eight children. Pare
had a quarrel with this dual relative, Francois Rousse-
let, concerning money matters, but it was settled out
of court. After the death of both her husband and
father, Catherine came back to live in Fare's old house
and died there in 1616.
Anne, Fare's eldest daughter by his second wife,
Jacqueline Rousselet, was baptized at the church of
Saint Andre des Arts on July 16, 1575. It is interest-
ing to note that her godparents were all persons of the
highest rank. Her godmother was Anne d'Este, the
first wife of Fran9ois de Lorraine, Due de Guise, by
whom that noble lady had two sons, the famous Henry,
Due de Guise, and the Cardinal de Guise. After the
death of the duke Anne d'Este married Jacques de Sa-
voie. Due de Nemours. The godfather of Fare's daugh-
loo AMBROISE PARE
ter Anne was Charles Emanuel de Savoie, Due de Ne-
mours, the son of her godmother. In 1596 Anne married
Henri Simon, a government official. She nearly lost
her life in childbirth in 1599, being saved by Guille-
meau and Haultin who used the method taught them
by Ambroise Pare. As stated above Louise Bourgeois
is often said to have originated the practice of inducing
labor to save the life of the mother. She tells in her
"Observations diverses sur la sterilite, perte de fruict,"
which was published in 1609, how she had used it, stat-
ing that it was a means "of saving the mother and giv-
ing baptism to the infant." She speaks also, however,
of her regret that she had not practiced it before she
attended the Duchess of Montbazon. Now that lady
died in 1602, in childbirth. In the following year
(1603), we know from the report of a case by Guille-
meau that Louise did not use it on a case in which they
were both in attendance.
The story of the delivery of Fare's daughter in 1599
is told by Guillemeau in his "L'heureux accouchement."
She was attended by a midwife named Charonne, and
by Drs. Haultin and Rigault. When she was near
her term she was seized with a terrific hemorrhage, caus-
ing syncope. Guillemeau and his son-in-law, Mar-
chant, were called in consultation. Guillemeau advised
that labor be immediately induced, as he had seen the
patient's father do it in a similar case. This advice
LIFE AND TIMES loi
was followed and the mother and child were both saved.
Guillemeau's book, "L'heureiix accouchement," was
published in 1609, just after the book of Louise Bour-
geois. He states in it that he had seen Pare and Hubert
induce labor twenty-five years before in these cases —
that is in 1584.^^ None of her other children survived.
She and her husband were still living but childless in
1616.
Fare's second child of his second marriage was a boy,
named for his father, Ambroise. He was baptized on
]May 30, 1576, having as grand an array of godparents
as his sister. His godmother was Phillipe de Montes-
pedon, duchesse de Beaupreau, who had first been the
wife of Mareschal de Monte j an, with whom Pare had
made his first campaign. After the death of Mareschal
de Montejan she had married the Prince de la Roche-
sur-Yon. One of the godfathers was Charles, Comte de
Mansfield, and the other Charles de Lorraine, Due
d'Elboeuf. This child died while yet an infant.
Another daughter, Marie, was baptized on Febru-
ary 6, 1578. Her godfather was Jean Camus, notary
and secretary to the king and registrar of the Council.
He was wealthy enough to be able to loan the king
25,000 livres tournois on one occasion, which was prob-
"My information is derived from Malgaigne's notes to Fare's book on
generation. He quotes from an article by M. Guillemot entitled: "Re-
marques historiques relatives a I'art des accouchements, et particuliere-
ment a I'accouchement force," Archiv. g^n. de mM., Par., 1837, xv,
554.
102 AMBROISE PARE
ably the reason why he was subsequently appointed
intendant of finances. One of Marie's godmothers was
Marie du Tillet, wife of Pierre Seguier, lieutenant civil
de la prevote de Paris. The other godmother was her
grandmother, Madame Rousselet. This child lived only
a short time.
On October 8, 1579, another daughter, Jacqueline,
was baptized. Her godfather was Jean Lallemant,
seigneur de Vousse, a man very prominent in the offi-
cial life of his time, being maitre des Comptes a Paris
and grand audencier de la chancellerie. One of the
godmothers was his sister, the wife of Claude Denbray,
seigneur de Bruyeres le Chastel, prevost des marchands
de Paris. The other was Antoinette Lallemant, wife of
M. Pierre Charles, auditeur du Roy and conseiller en
la chamhre des Comptes. Jacqueline died when she
was not quite three years old, being buried in the ceme-
tery of Saint Andre des Arts on September 13, 1582.
Another daughter was baptized Catherine on Feb-
ruary 12, 1581. Pare's daughter Catherine, by his first
wife, was still living and one would think that the simi-
larity of names might have occasioned some confusion.
Her godfather was M. Vincent Moussey, conseiller au
Parlement. One of her godmothers was Barbe Rous-
selet, wife of Didier Martin, archer de la garde du
corps du Roy and the other was her half-sister Cath-
erine.
LIFE AND TIMES 103
The second Catherine, as her sister of the same
name, survived her father. She was married in the
church of Saint Andre des Arts on September 29,
1603, to Claude HedeHn, conseiller en la chamhre du
tersor, an advocate of good family and ample means.
He was also a poet and Latin scholar of no mean abil-
ity. Hedelin died April 18, 1638. His widow sur-
vived him until November lltli, 1659. They had
CI?;- -
Autograph of Ambroise Pare.
{Reproduced by Le Paulmier from a quittance in the Biblioth^que
Nationale, Pidces originates 2195.)
twelve children. Some of their descendants yet live
and to Madame le Marquise Le Charron, whose hus-
band was a direct descendant of Catherine Pare and
Claude Hedelin, Le Paulmier expresses his indebted-
ness for permission to utilize documents among the ar-
chives of the family, documents which were of the great-
est importance in elucidating the life of Pare. Among
other things, he found the only authentic writing with
an autograph and a picture of the great surgeon.
One other son was born to Pare, once more named
Ambroise. He was baptized on November 8, 1583.
One of the godfathers was Jacques Mareschal, con-
seiller du Boy, the other, Jacques Guillemeau, the king's
104 AMBROISE PARE
surgeon. The godmother was Anne de Navieres,
daughter of an advocate to the grand council. This
boy was destined to the same fate as the other male
children of Pare. He died when less than a year old
and was buried on August 19, 1584, in the c'aurch of
Saint Andre des Arts.
Pare also took into his house and helped support
Bertrand Pare, son of his brother Jean, the barber-sur-
geon of Vitre, after the latter's death which occurred
before the year 1549.
On the fifth of August, 1549, by a legal document
in which Bertrand's father is referred to as deceased,
Ambroise Pare and his wife conferred on Bertrand
Pare an annuity of forty livres tournois. Pare also
entered his nephew as a student in the College de Saint
Come, from which it was necessary to remove him as
he would not work. Pare then apprenticed him to an
apothecary, Jean de Saint Germain. In this position
he again failed to prove satisfactory. No trace is left
of this ne'er-do-well and with this act of generosity of
his uncle he passes out of view.
But to return to the recital of Pare's own exploits.
Charles IX died of phthisis in May, 1574. To Pare
fell the duty of performing an autopsy and embalm-
ing the body. Henri III, who succeeded his brother,
not only retained Pare as his surgeon but also appointed
Ambroisk Park
(An unnh/rifd portrait in thf jxi.tscssimi of his (li-nmidnutn. Lc Patilinifr.}
LIFE AND TIMES 105
him valet de chamhre du rot. To two anecdotes, apro-
pos of Pare at the court of Henri III, Malgaigne does
not give credence because he could not find the original
sources from which they descended to the narrators
who gave them out some two hundred years later. One
is that the courtiers used to call the ptisans adminis-
tered by Pare "Ambrosia," and that Saint-Maigrin,
one of the mignons of Henri III, told the King one day
that he was living on "Ambrosia," being under treat-
ment at the time by Pare for some venereal trouble.
The other story relates how one day Bussy d'Am-
boise, a most popular courtier, upon hearing a court
usher calling out what he thought was his name, an-
swered the summons to go to the King, only to find
that it was Ambroise (Pare) that the King had wished
called. The courtiers all laughed at him for his mis-
take, but Bussy d'Amboise turned them off by say-
ing, "If I was not d'Amboise, I would wish to be Am-
broise, for there is no man whom I hold in more regard."
In 1575 Pare pubhshed the first collected edition
of his works. ^^ It was written in French and contained
a portrait of the author, and a dedication to the King.
The royal privilege to print the work had been signed
"Les Oeuvres de M. Ambroise Pare, conseiller et premier chirurgien
du roy, avec les figures et portraits tant de I'anatomie que des instru-
ments de chirurgie et de plusieurs monstres. The illustrations for this
book were taken from the fourth and last edition of this work published
during Pard's lifetime (1385).
io6 AMBROISE PARE
at Avignon, September 30, 1574. The printing of it
was finished April 22, 1575. On May 5, at a meeting
of the Faculte de Medecine, those present formulated
a demand that before being put on sale the works of
Ambroise Pare, "homme tres impudent et sans aucun
savoir," should be submitted to them for their approval.
Eitienne Gourmelen, the dean of the Faculte de
Medecine, thought he saw a good opportunity to hit
a hard blow at the former barber-surgeon who had been
created master surgeon by the royal favor against the
will of the Faculte and without all the customary for-
malities. He revived a decree of Parlement, which had
been made in 1535, prohibiting the publication of any
book on medicine without permission having been pre-
viously given by the Faculte de Medecine of Paris. In
Fare's works there was a book on fevers and much else
bearing on strictly medical (non-surgical) topics, also
Pare was absolutely ignorant of Latin and Greek, even
of the elements of grammar, and his book was written
in French. The Faculte notified the College de Saint
Come and asked its cooperation in their attack on this
edition of the works of this upstart who had so well
feathered his nest by the most obvious breaches of pro-
priety. Gourmelen also tried to secure the support of
the Universite by complaining to its representatives
that the works of Pare contained many abominable
things very injurious to the morals of the community.
LIFE AND TIMES 107
When the case came up on July 14, 1575, before the
Parlement de Paris the physicians demanded the con-
firmation of the decree of 1535 ordaining that no work
on medicine should be published without previous au-
thorization by the Faculte de Medecine. The surgeons
appeared for the College de Saint Come against Pare
notwithstanding his fellowship in that body. The pre-
vost of the merchants and the aldermen of Paris were
represented by ' an advocate who demanded that the
book should be burned because it contained indecencies
and things hurtful to morals in the state. Added to
this Andre Malzieu brought a charge that Pare had
been guilty of plagiary from his translation of a book
by Gourmelen. Pare addressed a little pamphlet in
justification of himself and his works to the Parle-
ment. This memoir was not known to Malgaigne, and
Le Paulmier, who publishes it in full, says that he
knows of no mention of it by any author except M.
Turner.^^ It bears the title "Reponse de M. Ambroise
Pare, premier Chirurgien du Roy, aux calomnies d'au-
cuns Medicins et Chirurgiens, touchant ses ceuvres,"
without date, although obviously written during the
progress of the action against Pare in 1575, and be-
gins as follows:
Messieurs, for more than thirty years I have had printed
many treatises on surgery; to which not only no man opposed
himself, but on the contrary each one was received with favor
^*Gaz. hebd. de mM. 1879, no. 24.
io8 AMBROISE PARE
and applause — which made me think that if I gathered them
in a body it would be a thing very agreeable to the public.
Which I having accomplished and with expense unbelievable,
when I thought to make them see the day, behold, Messieurs,
the physicians and surgeons opposing themselves to obscure
and extinguish them, for no other reason than because they
are put in our vulgar tongue, and in very intelligible terms, be-
cause they feared that those into whose hands they should
come, thinking themselves sufficiently provided with counsel
to rule them in their sickness, would not deign to summon
them. And the surgeons doubted lest the barbers receiving
full instruction by the reading of my works in all the opera-
tions of surgery, would come to be as skilful as themselves, and
by this means trespass on them. For the rest and others in
general, they were piqued by wilful hate, envy, and jealousy to
see Ambroise Pare in some reputation, a man well esteemed in
his estate; and to give color to their act they dismembered at
the outset some half-sentences of my works, taken from ancient
authors put into French by themselves ; thinking by such means
to abuse your good will so as to render my cause more odious.
Therefore to answer them I have willed to put this word in
writing in advance to serve for my salvation; to let them un-
derstand that I have wherewith to pay them. Praying you.
Messieurs, to consider that it is one thing to treat of the civility
of manners in moral philosophy for the instruction of tender
youth, and another thing to talk of natural matters as a true
physician and surgeon for the instruction of grown men.
Pare then devotes a number of pages to proving
that the portions of his book which his opponents had
claimed were indecent contained nothing more than had
been written of before in much the same terms by physi-
cians of both ancient and modern times, concerning the
generation of man, without even causing criticism on
the grounds of indecency or being subversive of public
morals. He defends himself and Charles IX for their
administration of corrosive subhmate to a criminal,
LIFE AND TIMES 109
stating that it was the best way in which to prove the
worthlessness of bezoar stone as an antidote. He states
that some attacked him because he had narrated that
he had been given poison in his food by some who hated
him because he was Huguenot, thereby implicating
the Cathohcs in the crime. He denies that he had told
this story with any intention to cast aspersions on the
Catholics, but that he had wished his readers to un-
derstand that the crime was attempted against him
solely from reHgious or political motives, and not be-
cause he had been guilty of any wrong doing to any
one. As to the monsters described and pictured in his
book he says that he had collected many of them from
the works of Rondelet, Gesner, Cardan, and Boistnau,
books which are ordinarily found in the hands of ladies
and girls; moreover of such monsters he says: "Is it
not permissible to see them every day in the flesh and
bone in this city of Paris and elsewhere?" Pare then
defends himself against the charge of blasphemy and
of lack of charitableness toward the poor, by stating
that his stories regarding the detection of beggars were
meant to aid in the detection of impostors, not to in-
jure the worthy poor, and that his remarks on diseases
named for the saints were not intended as reflections on
those holy personages. He defends his use of anti-
mony. The statement had been made in his deroga-
tion that he had served but two kings. Pare pointed
no AMBROISE PARE
out that he had been surgeon to the King of Navarre,
Henri II, Charles IX, and was at present serving
Henri III. It is curious that he makes no reference
to his service as surgeon to Fran9ois II. Possibly he
did not wish to stir up recollections of the fact that he
had been accused of causing this king's death by poison-
ing him. He asserts his firm belief that the kings of
France possess the power of curing scrofulous sores
by the royal touch. He says he has seen them do so
many times, and the fact is so notorious that for that
reason he did not write about it in his book.
Pare concludes, "For my part I esteem nothing in
my book pernicious because it is written in our vulgar
tongue. Thus the divine Hippocrates wrote in his lan-
guage, which was known and understood by women
and girls, talking no other language than that. As to
me I have not written except to teach the young sur-
geon, and not to the end that my book should be han-
dled by idiots and mechanics, even if it was written in
French."
The edition of Fare's works published in 1575 is
notable also for the treatise contained in it "of poisons
and the bites of mad dogs, and other bites and stings of
venomous beasts." This treatise is most interesting. It
discusses the subject very fully from the sixteenth-
century point of view, giving directions, for instance, as
to the best way prelates and other holders of ecclesias-
LIFE AND TIMES in
tical preferment may guard themselves against being
poisoned. Such persons should refrain from eating
highly seasoned food, as sauces when prepared by any
who could be suspected of such designs. Each morning
they should take a little of one of the universal antidotes,
either mithridatium or theriaca, with a little conserve
of roses, then drink some good wine or malvoisie, or
eat of the leaves of the rue, with a nut and some dry
figs. In case the poison has been swallowed he recom-
mends emetics, enemata, and the administration of oil
internally. Pare refers to the story currently told that
Pope Clement VII, uncle of Catherine de Medici, was
poisoned by the vapor of an envenomed torch, and to
other cases of poisoning by the odors of substances.
It will be recalled that perfumers as a class were fre-
quently suspected of kilHng people by means of poi-
soned perfumes. The Queen Mother's own perfumer
was quite generally suspected of such acts. Pare con-
cludes: "The true remedy for these envenomed per-
fumes, is never to smell them, and to flee such perfum-
ers as the plague, and chase them out of the kingdom
of France, sending them to live with the Turks and
infidels."
The only result of the proceeding was that the Par-
lement de Paris reaffirmed the decree of 1535 requiring
all medical books to be submitted to the Faculte de
Medecine for its approval before publication. Pare's
112 AMBROISE PARE
book was already on sale and in wide circulation, and no
further steps were taken against its author.
Malgaigne reviewing the meager surgical literature
preceding this publication of Fare's truthfully states
that it marks an epoch in surgery. It was the first real
surgical treatise which had appeared since that of Gui
de Chauliac, and what a difference there is between the
two authors — one writing at the time when the Arabian
influence was predominant, the other at the epoch of
the Renaissance! Malgaigne also directs attention to
the attempt made by Pare in introducing the part on
fevers, etc., to bring medicine and surgery once more
into their proper relationship to one another, proving
thereby the necessity for medical training on the part
of the surgeons. This, as Malgaigne says, was a really
great and valuable innovation. Pare's works imme-
diately assumed' the position to which they were justly
entitled, and opened a new era for surgery by reveal-
ing to the surgical world the value of personal experi-
ence combined with a knowledge of the science of sur-
gery, as contrasted with the slavish submission to tra-
ditional dogma which had heretofore prevailed. He
did for surgery what his great contemporary Vesalius
did for anatomy, and what, intermixed with lamentable
charlatanry, his other contemporary, Paracelsus, strove
to do for medicine.
In the second edition of his collected works which
LIFE AND TIMES 113
was published in 1579, Pare, evidently in deference to
the Faculte de Medecine, did away with his separate
book on fevers, scattering the material of which it was
composed throughout the book on tumors. He added
to this edition a treatise on animals, a discourse on dis-
tillations, and one on embalmment. In this edition he
also suppressed the passage on antimony which first
appeared in his treatise on the plague and was reprinted
in the collected edition of 1575. This was also a meas-
ure intended to placate the Faculte de Medecine.
Pare added a paragraph to his chapter on operations
for cataract which would indicate a tendency to bow
before the astrological influence still prevailing to some
extent with his contemporaries. He states that one
should not operate for cataract except at the waning
of the moon, at a time when there is no thunder or light-
ning in the sky, and when the sun is not in Aries,
which is concerned with the head. Since these astro-
logical precautions were not advised in the editions of
1561 nor 1575, there may have been some influence
brought to bear on Pare which caused their insertion,
as one gathers from other portions of his works that he
had but little, if any, belief in the direct influence of the
heavenly bodies on human ailments. It may be re-
called that Catherine de Medici believed absolutely in
the astrological predictions of her official astrologer,
Ruggieri, and took but few important steps without
114 AMBROISE PARE
first consulting him as to what the stars revealed on
the project. The book on fevers concluded with an
apologetic paragraph in which Pare protests that it was
not ambition to show off his learning that prompted its
composition, because, he says, all that is good in the
book was "compiled by me from good physicians, from
whom, after God I hold what little learning I have in
medicine and surgery."
In 1580, Monsieur Christophe Juvenal des Ursins
sustained a fall from his horse and was badly injured.
Pare was seventy years old but when sent for promptly
mounted his horse and rode out in the country to the
place where the injured man was lying. When the
patient had recovered, he asked Pare why he had not
given him mummy for his wound. This request
prompted Pare to write his discourse on mummy and
unicorn's horn,^° in which, although upwards of seventy
years old, he displays a vigor and esprit fully equal to
that of his very best work. These two remedies were
held in the highest esteem. Mummy was a resinous
substance which purported to be made from Egyptian
mummies. Unicorn's horn was supposed to be derived
from the animal. As a matter of fact it was generally
made from elephant's or rhinoceros' tusks. It was sold
for a most enormous price and its use was chiefly in con-
sequence confined to the noble or wealthy. When
*«Discourse de la Mumie et de la Licorne, Paris, 1582.
LIFE AND TIMES 115
Henri II was married to Catherine de Medici, the
bride's uncle. Pope Clement VII, presented Fran9ois
I, the bridegroom's father, with a piece of the horn of
a unicorn, beautifuDy mounted by a Milanese gold-
smith. This horn was said to possess the power of de-
stroying the effects of poison mixed with food. In
1557 when Elizabeth, daughter of Henri II, had small-
pox, the Constable, Anne de Montmorenci, sent to Ma-
dame d'Humeires, who had charge of her, "a piece of
the horn of a unicorn," with the directions that it was
to be dissolved "but not in warm water," and admin-
istered.
Mummy was greatly sophisticated, being made
from all sorts of resinous substances. Pare says that,
according to some, mummies were sometimes made "in
our France" from the bodies stolen from gallows; but he
adds, "Nevertheless I believe that they are as good as
those brought from Egypt; because they are none of
them of any value. Thereupon we will send them back
to Egypt, as we will the unicorn to inaccessible des-
erts." Pare says that it is inconceivable that decom-
posed bodies are of any use as remedies, even if the
true mummy were obtainable. As to unicorn's horn,
he reports that there is no proof that such an animal
exists, that the horn on the market may be any kind
of ivory, and that whatever it is, there is absolutely no
medicinal value in a substance so perfectly inert. He
ii6 AMBROISE PARE
quotes ancient authority, Hippocrates and Galen, to
show that these men made no use of it, and that the
modern physicians of whom he inquired were also scep-
tical. He asked Chapelain, first physician to Charles
IX, to use his authority to abolish the custom which
prevailed at the court of dipping a piece of unicorn's
horn in the king's cup before he drank as a precaution
against possible poison in his drink. Chapelain re-
plied that although he did not believe that unicorn's
horn possessed any virtue, he dared not stop the prac-
tice as the belief was rooted in the minds of both princes
and people, adding that if it did no good it certainly
did no harm except to the purse of those who pur-
chased it.
This discourse on mummy and unicorn's horn pro-
duced an answer from an anonymous author, but bear-
ing the statement that it had been "seen and approved
by M. Grangier, Dean of the School of Medicine."
The author advises Pare to confine himself to surgery
as when he goes beyond his confines the little children
mock at him, and he reproaches him with inserting pic-
tures of monsters in his surgery which would only serve
to amuse children. He adds that the mere fact that
they conserved at St. Denis a unicorn's horn for which
the King had refused one hundred thousand crowns
sufficed to convince him of its usefulness, and that Pare
wronged the King by his skepticism.
The Camphur, a Variety of the Unicorn, Said to Have
Been Found in Ethiopia.
{Pare, Edition 1585.)
LIFE AND TIMES 119
Pare condescended to answer his anonjuious critic
in a little pamphlet,-^ in which, while not adding any-
thing new to his arguments, he concludes with what
JNIalgaigne calls this charming supplication, "Only I
pray him, if he desires to oppose any argument to my
reply, that he will quit his animosities and treat more
kindly le bon viellard." ^^
" "Replique d'Ambroise Pare, premier chirurgien du roy, a la response
faicte centre son discourse de la licorne," 1584.
"Sir Thomas Browne in his "Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Er-
rors," Book III, chap, xxiii, writes at length of unicorn's horn. Although
he states his belief in the existence of such an animal, he then pro-
ceeds to mention that the substances in general sold for it are derived
from an innumerable varietj' of sources and not solely even from horns.
He ascribes to Thomas Bartholinus of Copenhagen and Olaus Wormius
the credit of pointing out that many of the specimens were the teeth of
the narwhale, and continues, "that some antidotal quality it may have,
we have no reason to deny; for since elk's hoofs and horns are magnified
for epilepsies, since not only the bone in the hart, but the horn of the
deer is alexipharmical (antidotal to poisons), an ingredient into the con-
fection of hyacinth, and the electuary of Maximilian, we cannot without
prejudice except against the efficacy of this."
Sir Thomas concludes: "Since, therefore, there be many unicorns; since
that whereto we appropriate a horn is so variously described, that it
seemeth never to have been seen by two persons, or not to have been one
animal; since though they agreed in the description of the animal, yet is
not the horn we extol the same with that of ancients; since what horns so
ever they may that pass among us, they are not the horn of one, but
several animals; since many in common use and high esteem are no horn
at all; since if they were true horns, yet might their virtues be ques-
tioned; since though we allowed some virtues, yet were not others to be
received; with what security a man may rely on this remedy, the mistress
of fools hath already instructed some, and to wisdom (which is never too
wise to learn), it is not too late to consider." Sir Thomas mentions the
horn of St. Denis, saying "that famous horn which is preserved at St. Denis,
near Paris, hath wreathy spires, and cochleary turnings about it, which
agreeth with the description of the unicorn's horn in Elian."
The "Encyclopedia Britannica," Xllth Edition (Art. Unicorn), states that
the earliest description of the unicorn is given by Ctesias, who says that
there were in India white wild asses celebrated for their fleetness of foot,
and having on the forehead a horn a cubit and a half in length, colored white,
red and black, and from this horn were made drinking cups which were
antidotal to any poison put in them. A belief in its antidotal properties
lingered in England until the reign of Charles II, when a cup made of
rhinoceros horn was given to the Royal Society to investigate its prop-
erties. This investigation resulted in completely proving its uselessness.
120 AMBROISE PARE
In 1582 Jacques Guillemeau published a Latin edi-
tion of Fare's collected works. It was printed in Ger-
many. The Faculte de Medecine tried to throw ob-
stacles in the way of it but their opposition came to
naught.
In 1585 Pare published the fourth collected edition ^^
of his works, the last to appear in his lifetime, con-
taining the invaluable addition of his "Apology and
Journeys." The latter book was written because of an
attack made on Pare by Etienne Gourmelen in his book
on surgery. Gourmelen especially attacked Pare for
his use of the ligature in amputations. We have seen
how Pare demolished him and we should be devoutly
thankful to the stupid dean of the faculty who pro-
voked him to reply.
Gourmelen, in return for Fare's counter-attack, had
one of his pupils, Comperat, write an answer to Pare.
It consisted chiefly in vituperation but it also contained
some serious aspersions. He was accused of having
plagiarized all that was good in his book from Gour-
melen! As he did not know Latin he was accused of
"never having put his nose in a notable author." The
case of his brother-in-law, Gaspard Martin, master bar-
ber-surgeon of Paris, who had died after Pare had am-
putated his leg, was cited as an instance of the failure
^'Les Oeuvres d'Ambroise Pare, conseiller et premier chirurgien du roy,
divisee en vingt-huict livres avec les figures — Revues et Augments par
I'auteur. Quatrieme edition, a Paris, chez Gabriel Buon. 1585.
^utre
The Reduction of Dislocations of the Shoulder.
{Pare, Edition 1585.)
122 AMBROISE PARE
of the ligature. Comperat also accused Pare of having
stated in his book on "Generation" that he had removed
the uterus of a patient, when after her death, six months
later, the uterus was found intact at the autopsy. Com-
perat gives the names of the physician and surgeon
present at the autopsy and states that Pare had never
been able to deny the facts. Malgaigne comments that
it is impossible to now ascertain the truth about the
case. It is, of course, possible that Pare was in error
in believing that he had removed the uterus, but it is
impossible to believe that he deliberately lied. Pare
disdained to reply to this veiled attack by Gourmelen
feeling doubtless that he had said enough in his
"Apology."
On the first of August, 1589, Henri III was stabbed
to death by Jacques Clement, a monk. The court was
at Saint Cloud whither Pare had not accompanied
it, so that although he still held the position of premier
chirurgien du Roy, he was not in attendance on the
king. Antoine Portail was with the wounded man in
his last moments.
Pare was in Paris when that city was besieged by
Henri IV in 1590. Conditions within its walls were
horrible. Famine prevailed. As many as two hundred
dead bodies were found in the streets daily. The Lea-
guers, the name by which the Catholic party was known,
were resolved to hold out against the King of Navarre
The Reduction of Dislocation of the Shoulder
(Pare, Edition 1585)
124 AMBROISE PARE
until the last gasp. The city was blockaded, rather
than besieged. Henri did not wish to shed the blood
of his subjects even when they were rebeUing against
him. The pages of L'Estoile's journal reveal the
frightful ravages which the lack of food produced in
the city. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, said in
public that when there was no more flour to make bread,
which threatened to be the case in a few days, they
should grind up the bones of the dead in the charnel
houses of the cemeteries, soak the powder in water,
and cook it. A month later this expedient was actu-
ally tried but all those who ate this bread made from
bone dust, died. One episode during this famous siege
of Paris created great excitement and even furnished
some amusement. On May 14, 1590, all the religious
orders of Paris paraded under arms, bishops, priors,
abbots, monks, and seminarians, singing hymns and
every now and then firing their guns. So untrained
were they in the management of their weapons that
several innocent bystanders were killed by these mani-
festations of holy zeal. Many pictures are extant rep-
resenting various incidents in the parade. In these
straits we get our last ghmpse of Ambroise Pare, striv-
ing as always to help others. In his journal Pierre de
L'Estoile gives the following account of a meeting be-
tween the Archbishop of Lyons, one of the chief
Leaguers, and Pare:
LIFE AND TIMES 125
"I remember that about eight or ten days at most
before the raising of the siege, M. de Lyon, passing
at the end of the Pont Saint IMichel, as he found him-
self besieged by a crowd of mean people, dying of hun-
ger, who cried to him, demanding bread or death, and
he not knowing how to despatch them, encountered
Master Ambroise Pare, who said loudly to him, 'Mon-
seigneur, these poor people whom you see here about you
are dying of the cruel rage of hunger, and demand pity
of you. For God's sake, Monsieur, give it to them,
if you would have God countenance you, and think a
little of the dignity in which God has placed you, and
that the cries of these poor people which mount to
Heaven, are a warning that God sends you, to think
of the duties of your charge, for which you are respon-
sible to Him. Therefore, according to this, and by the
power which we all know that you have, procure us
peace, and give us wherewith to live, because the poor
people can no longer do so. See you not that Paris
perishes at the will of the villains who wish to prevent
the peace which is the will of God? Oppose them firmly.
Monsieur, taking in hand the cause of the poor afflicted
people, and God will bless and repay you.' Monsei-
gneur, the Archbishop, said nothing or next to nothing,
except that, contrary to his custom he was patient to
hear him out without interruption, and he said after-
wards that this good man had altogether astonished
126 AMBROISE PARE
him; and again that this was a different sort of politics
than his own, but that he had awakened him and made
him think of many things."
This is the last we know of Pare until L'Estoile
writes, "Thursday, twentieth of December, 1590, the
eve of Saint Thomas, died at Paris, in his own house
Master Ambroise Pare, surgeon to the king, aged
eighty yea^s, a learned man and the chief of his art;
who, in spite of the times, had always talked and talked
freely for peace and for the good of the people, that
which made him as much loved by the good as he was
wished evil and hated by the wicked." Pare's body was
laid to rest in the church of Saint Andre des Arts at
the foot of the nave near the tower.
THE
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
THE APOLOGY AND TREATISE
CONTAINING
THE VOYAGES MADE INTO DIVERS PLACES
By Ambroise Pare of Laval
Councillor and Surgeon to the King.
RULY I have not put my hand to
the pen to write in such a manner,
had it not been that some have im- ^f What
the Adver-
pudently taxed and insulted me, and sary Ac-
disgraced me, more by particular ^J^^f^J^^
!l hate, than by any good zeal they
should have to the public, concerning my manner of
tying the veins and arteries, writing that which fol-
lows:
Male igitur et nimium arroganter, inconsultus et
temerarius quidam, vasorum ustionem post emortui
membri resectionem, a veteribus omnibus plurimum Words of
commendatam, et semper probatam, damnare ausus est: Adversary
novum quemdam deligandi vasa modum, contra veteres
129
130 AMBROISE PARE
omnes medicos sine ratione, experientia et judicio, do-
cere cupiens, nee animadvertit major a multo pericula
ex ipsa nova vasorum deligatione (quam acu partem
sanam profunde transfigendo administrari vult im-
minere, quam ex ipsa ustione: Nam si acu neurosam
aliquam partem vel nervum ipsum pupugerit, dum ita
novo et inusitato modo venam absurde conatur con-
stringere, nova inflammatio necessario consequetur, a
qua convulsio et a convulsione cita mors. Quorum symp-
tomatum metu Galenu^ non ante transuersa vulnera
suere audebat (quod tamen minus erat periculosum)
quam musculorum aponeuroses denudasset. Adde quod
forcipes, quibus post sectionen iterumi carnem dilacerat,
cum retracta versus originem vasa se posse extrahere
somniat, non minorem afferunt dolorem, qu^am ignita
f err amenta admota. Quod si quis novum hunc laniatum
expertus incolumis evaserit, is Deo optimo maximo
cuius beneficentia, crudelitate ista et carnificina liberatus
est, maximas gratias habere, et semper agere debet.^
Which is to say: "Badly then and too arrogantly,
indiscreetly, and temerariously, a certain personage has
wished to condemn and blame the cauterization of the
vessels after the amputation of a corrupt and rotten
^Malgaigne states that this Uatin text is copied from page 124 of
Gourmelen's book "Stephani Gourmeleni Curiosititae Parisiensis medici
Chirurgicae artis, ex Hippocratis et aliorum veterura Medicorum decretis,
ad rationis normam redactae. Libri 111."
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 131
member, much praised and recommended by the an-
cients, and always approved, wishing and desiring to
show and teach us, without reason, judgment or expe-
rience, a new way of tying the vessels, against the
opinion of all the ancient physicians, giving no cau-
tion nor advice that there frequently happen many
more great perils and accidents from this new fashion
of tying the vessels (which he wishes to be done by a
needle piercing profoundly the healthy part) than by
burning and combustion of the said vessel. Because,
if with the needle one should prick some nervous part,
to wit even the nerve itself, when he wishes by this new
and untried means, grossly to constrain the vein in ty-
ing it, necessarily there will follow a new inflammation,
from the inflammation a convulsion, from the convul-
sion, death: for fear of which accidents Galen never
dared to stitch transverse wounds (that which is always
less dangerous) before uncovering the aponeuroses of
the muscles. Moreover, this the forceps with which,
after the section, he once more tears the flesh, while he
thinks it possible to draw forth the vessels which are
drawn back towards their origin, brings no less pain
than the hot iron. And if anyone having experienced
this new fashion of cruelty, has recovered from it, he
should render thanks to God forever, by the goodness
of whom he has escaped such cruelty, feeling rather
132 AMBROISE PARE
his executioner than his methodical chirurgeon." ^
Oh, what beautiful words! for an aged man, who
calls himself a wise doctor. He does not remember
that his white beard admonisheth him not to say any-
thing unworthy of his years, and that he should put off
and drive out from him all envy and rancor conceived
against his neighbor. But, now I wish to prove to him
by authority, reason, and experience, that the said veins
and arteries should be tied.
Authorities^
As to authorities I will come to that of that grand
man Hippocrates, who wills and commands the recov-
ery of fistulas of the fundament by ligature, as much to
absorb the callosity as to avoid haemorrhage.
Galen, in his "Method," speaking of a flow of blood
made by an external cause, of whom see here the words :
It is (saith he) most sure to tie the root of the vessel,
which I understand to be that (part) which is most
near to the liver or to the heart.
Avicenna commands to tie the vein and the artery,
after having uncovered it towards its origin.
'Malgaigne points out that Pare did not recommend ligature by means
of a needle, although he mentions it as a means which could be employed
in some cases. Curiously Pare does not point out this fact in reply to
Gourmelen.
*Pare gives in marginal notes the exact references to his citations. I
have omitted these references in most instances as he does not state the
edition from which they were taken and hence they are of no particular
value to the text.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 133
Gui de Chauliac, speaking of wounds of the veins
and arteries, enjoins the surgeon to make the ligature
on the vessel.
Monsieur Hollier in Book III, chapter 5, of his
"Matiere du Chirurgie," speaking of the flow of blood,
commands expressly to tie the vessels.
Bec de Corbin
Calmetheus, in his chapter on the "Wounds of Veins
and Arteries," treats of a very sure means of arresting
the flow of blood by ligature of the vessels.
Celsus, from whom the said physician hath taken the
greater part of his book, recommends expressly to tie
the vessels in the flow of blood following wounds as a
very easy and very sure remedy.
Vesalius, in his "Surgery," directs that the vessels be
tied in a flow of blood,
Jean de Vigo, treating of haemorrhage from recent
wounds, commands to tie the vein and ^r.tery.
134 AMBROISE PARE
Tagault, treating of the means of arresting a flow
of blood, commands to pinch the vein or artery with a
crow beak, or a parrot beak,* then to tie it with a strong
enough thread.
Pierre de Argellata of Boulogne, discoursing of
flow of blood and the manner of arresting it, gives a
fourth means expressly, which is done by ligature of the
vessels.
John Andreas a Cruce, a Venetian, makes mention
of a method of arresting the flow of blood by ligature
of the vessels.
D'Alechamp commands to tie the veins and arteries.
Now there see, mon petit bonhomme, the authori-
ties who command you to tie the vessels. As for the
reasons, I wish to discuss them.
Haemorrhage is not so much to be feared (say you)
in the section of the epiploon, as in that of varices, and
in incision of the temporal arteries as after the ampu-
tation of a member. But you yourself command that
in cutting varices, one arrest the flow of blood by liga-
ture of the vessel. You command the same speaking
of the suture with the amputation and section of the
epiploon, altered by the surrounding air. Here are
your words: "After that it is necessary to advise as to
the epiploon, that if there is any part corrupted, putre-
*Bec de Corbm ou de Perroquet — ^instruments very like our modern
hemostats.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 135
fied, withered or blackish: first having tied it for fear
of a flow of blood," and the rest. You do not say,
"after having cauterized it," but to tell the truth you
have your eyes shut and all your senses dulled, when
you have wished to speak against so sure a method,
and this is but by anger and ill-will; because there is
nothing which has more power to chase the reason from
its seat, than anger and ill-will. JVIoreover, when we
come to cauterize the amputated part, most frequently
when the eschar comes to fall off, there follows a new
flow of blood, as I have seen many times, not having
been yet inspired by God with so sure a means then
when 1 used the fire. What if you have not discovered
or understood this method in the books of the ancients,
you should not thus trample it under your feet, and
speak evil of one who all his life has preferred the
profit of the public to his own particular. Is it not
more than reasonable to found it on the saying of Hip-
pocrates, of the authority of whom you serve yourself,
which is this: "That what the medicament cureth not,
the iron doth; and that which the iron amendeth not,
the fire extermineth"? It is a thing which savoureth not
of Christianity to burn all at the first blow, without
staying oneself to more gentle remedies, as you your-
self write in Book I, page 5, speaking of the conditions
required in a surgeon to cure well, which passage you
borrow from elsewhere; for that which mav be done
136 AMBROISE PARE
gently without fire, is much more commendable than
otherwise. Is it not a thing which all schools hold as
an axiom, that we shall always commence with the most
easy remedies? And if they are not sufficient then
one will come to extremes, following the doctrines of
Hippocrates. Galen recommends as much in the place
before alleged, to treat the sick quickly, safely, and
with as little pain as one can.
Let Us Come Now to the Proof
Because one knows not how to apply the hot irons
but with an extreme and vehement pain, in a sensitive
part, free from gangrene, which would be the cause of
convulsion, fever, yea ofttimes of death. And more-
over it would be a long time afterwards before the poor
patients would be cured, because by the action of the
fire there is made an eschar, which is formed from the
flesh subjected to it, which being fallen off, it is neces-
Of What sary that Nature regenerates another new flesh in place
the Eschar ^^ ^j^g^^ which has been burned, in addition the bone re-
ts Made
mains bare and uncovered, and in this way there re-
mains very often an incurable ulcer. Again there is
another accident, this is, that ofttimes the eschar falls,
the flesh not being well reformed, the blood flows from
it, as much as or more than before. But when one has
tied them [the vessels] the ligature will fall off only
when the flesh has first recovered them [the vessels].
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 137
Which is proved by Galen in the fifth book of hi§
Method, saying that escharotic medicaments, which
form crusts [eschars] whensoever they fall away leave
the part more bare than its natural habit requires, for
the generation of the eschar is from the parts under
and around it which are half burned, so to speak ; where-
fore by as much as the part is burnt by so much it loseth
its natural heat.
Now, tell me, when is it necessary to use escharotic
medicaments, or cauterizing irons? It is when the flow
of blood is caused by erosion, or by gangrene or putre- ^/J;^*
faction. But is this so regarding recent wounds where Adversary
there is neither gangrene nor putrefaction? Ergo, the
cauteries should not be applied to them. And when
the ancients have commanded to apply hot irons to the
mouth of vessels, it is not only to arrest blood, but
chiefly to correct the malignity or gangrenous putre-
faction which might damage the neighboring parts.
And it is necessary to note here that if I had known
such accidents happen, as you have declared in your
book, in drawing forth and tying the vessels, I would
never have been twice deceived, and would not have
wished to leave to posterity by my writings any such
manner of arresting the flow of blood. But I have writ-
ten it after having seen it done, and that many times
with the most happy success. See that which could re-
sult from your inconsiderate counsel, [given] without
138 AMBROISE PARE
examining or arresting itself on the ease of tying the
said vessels. For see, here is your aim and proposition :
Proposition "To tie the vessel after amputation is a new remedy,"
7 » say you, "therefore it should not be used." This is badly
Adversary j j ■> j
argued for a doctor.
As to that which is necessary (say you) , "to use fire
after amputations of the members, in order to consume
and check the putrefaction which is common to gan-
grenes and mortifications," that in truth hath no place
here because the practice is to amputate always the part
above that [portion] which is mortified and corrupted,
as wrote and commanded Celsus, to perform the am-
putation on that which is healthy, rather than to leave
any of the putrefied. I would willingly demand of you,
if when a vein is cut transversely and has retracted it-
self very much towards its origin, you would not scruple
to burn until you had found the orifice of the vein or
artery, and if it is not more easy with only a crow beak
to seize and draw forth the vessel and tie it? In which
you show openly your ignorance, and that you have
your mind possessed with a great animosity and anger.
We see practiced every day with the happiest success,
the said ligature of the vessel, after the amputation of
a part ; that which I wish now to verify by experiences
and histories of those on whom the said ligature hath
been made and [the] persons yet living.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 139
Experience
The sixteenth day of June, 1582, in the presence
of Master Jean Liebault,^ doctor in the Faculty of
Medicine of Paris, Claude Viard,** sworn surgeon Operation
[cUrurgien jurS], Master Mathurin Huron, surgeon I'yl^^^^l'^
of Monsieur de Souvray, and myself, Jean Charbon- honnel
nel, master barber-surgeon of Paris, well informed in
the theory and practice of surgery, with great dexterity
amputated the left leg of a woman, who had suffered
more than three years day and night from extreme
pain, because of an extensive caries, which was in the
OS astragalus, cuboide, the great and little focil, and
through all the nervous parts. She was named Marie
d'Hostel — aged twenty-eight years or thereabouts, wife
of Pierre Herve, esquire of the kitchen of Madame the
Duchess of Uzes, dwelling in the rue des Verbois, be-
yond Saint Martin des Champs, at the sign of the Head
of Saint John — from whom the said Charbonnel cut the
^Liebault was admitted to the doctorate at Paris in 1561. He mar-
ried a daughter of Charles Estienne, the publisher, and seems to have
shared in some of his father-in-law's enterprises and to have been affected
by the latter's ruin when he failed. Liebault retired to Dijon where he
died June 21, 1596. He wrote a book on diseases of women, and another
entitled "Quatre Livres de secrets de medecine." Liebault was one of the
committee appointed by the Faculty of Medicine of Paris in 1578 to
examine the works of Pare when he applied to that body for permission
to publish the second edition. The publication was authorized but none
too graciously.
«\lard or Viart was Fare's pupil and assistant for twenty years. In
1577 he married Jeanne Par6, the orphan daughter of Pare's brother Jean,
who had been adopted by Ambroise Pare and who lived in his house.
Viard died about 1583, and five years later his widow married Francois
Forest.
140 AMBROISE PARE
leg at four large finger-breadths below the knee; and
after he had incised the flesh and sawn the bone, he
gripped the vein with the crow's beak, then the artery,
then tied them: of which I protest to God (as the com-
pany which were there can testify) that in the whole
operation, which was quickly done, there was not lost
a porringer of blood, and I directed the said Charbon-
nel to let it bleed more, following the precept of Hip-
pocrates, that it is good to let the blood flow in all
wounds and ulcers, even inveterate, as by this means
the part is less subject to inflammation. The said Char-
bonnel continued to treat and dress her, who was cured
in two months, without there ever supervening any
hsemorrhage or flow of blood, nor any other evil acci-
dent, and she went to see you in your house, being per-
fectly recovered.
Another history of recent memory of a singing man
of Notre Dame, named Monsieur Paulain, who broke
both bones of the leg; these were crushed in many pieces
in such a manner that there was no hope of curing him.
To avoid gangrene and mortification and by conse-
quence death, Monsieur Helin, doctor regent in the
Faculty of Medicine, a man of honor and good skill,
Claude Viard, and Simon Pietre,"^ sworn surgeons of
'Pietre was the father-in-law of Jean Riolan. He was a Protestant
and escaped the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew only because he received
timely warning from Riolan and was able to conceal himself in the abbey
of Saint Victor. He was present when Par6 performed the autopsy on
Charles IX. He died in 1584.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 141
Paris, men much experienced in surgery, and Balthasar
de Lestre and Leonard de Leschenal, master barber-
surgeons, also much experienced in the operations of Operation
surgery, were all of the opinion, that to obviate the
aforesaid accidents, it was necessary to make entire am-
putation of the leg, a little above the broken and splin-
tered bones, and lacerated nerves, veins and arteries.
The operation was dexterously performed by the said
Viard, and the blood staunched b}^ the ligature of the
vessels, in the presence of the said Helin, and of Mon-
sieur Tonsard, Grand Vicar of Notre Dame. He was
constantly dressed by the said Leschenal, and I went
occasionally to see him. He was happily cured without
the application of hot irons, and went his way gaily on
a wooden leg.
In the year 1583,^ the tenth day of December,
Toussaint Posson, native of Roinville, at present dwell- jiisi^rl
ing at Beauvais near Dourdan, having his leg all ul-
cerated, and all the bones carious and rotten, besought
me that for the honor of God I would amputate his leg,
because of the great pain which he could no longer bear.
After being prepared, I had his leg amputated four
fingers below the rotula [patella] of the knee, by
Daniel Poullet, one of my servitors, to teach him and
embolden him to do such work, where he tied very dex-
"Le Paulmier directs attention to the date of this operation as indi-
cating that e%'en at his then advanced age of seventy-three years Par6
was yet in active practice.
142 AMBROISE PARE
terously the vessels in order to staunch the blood, with-
out the application of hot irons, and in the presence of
Jacques Guillemeau,^ surgeon in ordinary to the. king,
and Jean Charbonnel, master barber-surgeon in Paris.
During his cure he was seen and visited by Messieurs
Laffile and Courtin,^^ doctors regent in the Faculty of
Medicine of Paris.
The said operation was performed in the house of
Jean Gohel, innkeeper, dweUing at the sign of the
White Horse in the Greve.^^
I do not wish to forget to say here that Madame la
Princesse de Montpensier, knowing that he was poor,
and that he would be in my hands, gave him the money
to pay for his chamber and nourishment. He was well
cured, thank God, and returned to his home with a
wooden leg.
"Jacques Guillemeau was born at Orleans in 1550, according to Le
Paulmier, of a family of surgeons. He was a favorite and worthy pupil
of Fare's, living in his house for many years. Guillemeau had a dis-
tinguished career. He was chirurgien ordinaire to Henri HI, Henri IV,
and Louis XIII. He died March 13, 1612. He was a faithful adherent
of Ambroise Par6 in his several quarrels with the surgeons. In 1581 he
published the works of Par6 translated into Latin, which involved him in
a dispute with the surgeons on his own account as he was accused by them
of using a translation made by a physician, and not by himself, as claimed
on the title page. Guillemeau in the preface states that the translation
was in fact made by a friend who did not wish his name to appear.
Gui Patin says the translator was Hautin,
"Germain Courtin lectured on surgery in the Faculty of Medicine of
Paris. He would not seem to have been liberally inclined towards the
surgeons as, according to Le Paulmier, he caused a decree to be issued
forbidding them to give courses on anatomy.
"Place du Greve.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 143
Another History
A gangrene occurred in half of the leg of one named
Nicolas Mesnager, aged seventy-six years, dwelling in
the Rue Saint Honore at the sign of the Basket, which
happened to him from an internal cause so that one was
constrained to amputate the leg to save his life. It was ^''.'^srene
^ foLlonnng
amputated by Antoine Renaud, master barber-surgeon antecedent
of Paris, the sixteenth day of December 1583, in the ^°"*^
presence of Messieurs Le Fort ^- and La Noiie,^'' sworn
surgeons of Paris. And the blood was staunched by
ligature of the vessels, and he is at present recovered,
and in good health, walking with a wooden leg.
Another History
A waterman at the Porte de Nesle, dwelling near
Monsieur de Mas, controller of Posts, named Jean
Bousserau, with whom an arquebus broke in his hand, ■^^^^^''^
which entirely shattered the bone and tore all the other
parts, in such a way that it was needful and necessary
to make an amputation of the arm. Which was done
by Jacques Guillemeau, at present surgeon in ordinary ^^''''''^''"^
to the king, who was dwelling then with me. The Guillemeau
^^Rodolphe Le Fort was distinguished for the zeal with which he stood
up for the rights of the surgeons. He died in 1606.
^'Jerome La Noue, son of Mathurin La Nolle, a distinguished sur-
geon, was one of the most eminent surgeons of his day. He served in this
capacity Catherine de Medici, Charles IX, Henry HI, and Henry IV.
He died in 1628. Le Paulmier states that he left a manuscript containing
the most valuable material relating to the history of surgery which is
preserved in the library of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris.
144
AMBROISE PARE
operation was likewise dexterously performed, and the
blood staunched by ligature of the vessels, without the
burning irons. He is still at present living.
Another History
A merchant grocer, living in the rue Saint Denis,
at the sign of Le Gros Tournois, named Le Juge, who
fell upon his head where was made a wound near the
temporal muscle, where he had an artery opened, from
which the blood poured forth very impetuously, in such
a manner that the ordinary measures for staunching the
blood would not serve. I was called thither where I
found Messieurs Rasse, Cointeret," Viard, sworn
surgeons of Paris, staunching the blood; where
promptly I took a threaded needle and tied the artery
for him, and there was no bleeding afterwards and he
was soon cured. Witness for it will be Monsieur Rous-
selet, not long since dean of your faculty, who treated
him with us.
Another History
A sergeant of the Chatelet, dwelling near Saint
Andre des Arts, who had a sword thrust in the throat
at the Pre Aux Clercs,^^ which cut completely through
the external jugular vein, as soon as he was wounded
"Jean Cointeret, a native of Paris, was one of tiie sworn surgeons of
the king at the Chatelet. He was present when Par6 made an autopsy on
the body of Charles IX. He died May 13th, 1592.
i^Meadow of the Clerks. This was a great place for duels and brawls.
It was located near Saint Germain Aux Pre.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 145
he placed his handkerchief on the wound and sought me
at my house. When he lifted his handkerchief, the
blood spouted forth with great impetuosity. I at once
tied the vein towards its root. By this means it was
staunched and he was cured, thanks to God. But if
one had followed your manner of staunching the blood
by the cauteries, I leave it to be thought if he would
have recovered. I believe he would have died in the
hands of the operator.
If I wished to recite all those on whom one has tied
the vessels to stay the blood, which have been cured, I
should not have ended this long time, but meseems that
here are enough of histories recited to make you believe
that one can surely stay the blood from veins and arter-
ies without applying the actual cauteries.
He who doth strive against experience
Is not worthy to discourse of high science}^
Du Bartas.
But, mon petit maistre, as to that that you reproach
me, that I have not described in my works, all the opera-
tions of surgery which the ancients wrote of, I would
be very sorry for it if I had done so, for then you could
with good right call me carnifeoo. I have left them be-
cause they are too cruel, and have wished to follow the
moderns who have moderated such cruelty, that which
notwithstanding you have followed step by step as ap-
"Celuy la qui combat contre I'experience,
N'est digne du discours d'une haute science.
146 AMBROISE PARE
pears from the operations here written, extracted from
your book which you have drawn here and there from
certain ancient authors, such as follow, and which you
have never practiced nor seen.
First Operation
For inveterate fluxions of the eyes and for migraines,
Paulus Aegineta as also Albucasis command to make
arteriotomy, of which Aegineta see here the words:
"It is necessary to mark the arteries which are behind
the ears, then sever them cutting down to the bone, and
make a great incision (the breadth) of two fingers";
that which also ordains Aetius but (directs) that the
incision should be made transversely cutting or incising
the length of two large fingers, until one has found
the artery, as you command to be done in your book.
But I holding with Galen who commands to dress the
sick quickly, safely, and with as little pain as possible,
teach the young surgeons the means of remedying such
evils by opening the arteries behind the ears and those
of the temples, with only one incision as in letting blood,
and not to make a great incision and (thereby) cut out
work for a long time.
Second Operation
For fluxions which are made for a long time on
the eyes Paulus Aegineta and Albucasis order an in-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 147
cision made which they call periscythismos, or angiology
of the Greeks, and here are the words of Paul: "In
this operation first the head is shaved, then guarding
against touching the temporal muscles, a transverse
incision is made commencing at the left temple and
finishing at the right." This you have put in your book
word for word, without changing anything, which
shows openly that you are a true plagiarist, as one can
see in your chapter which you call the "crown" cut,
which is made in a demicircle under the coronal suture,
from one temple to the other, down to the bone. But I
do not teach any remedy so cruel, but teach the opera-
tor by reason, authority, and notable proofs, of a sure
means of remedying such affections without thus butch-
ering men.
Third Operation
In the cure of empyema Paulus Aegineta, Albuca-
sis, and Celsus command to apply some thirteen cauter-
ies, others fifteen cauteries to give issue to the pus con-
tained in the thorax, as the said Celsus in the aforesaid
place, ordered for asthmatics; which is a thing (saving
their honor), beyond all reason, since the surgeon's aim
is to give issue to the matter contained therein, there is
no other question but of making an opening to evacuate
the matter in the most inferior part. I have shown
the young surgeon the method of doing this safely with-
out tormenting the patient for nothing.
148 AMBROISE PARE
Fourth Operation
For breasts that are too large, Paulus Aegineta
and Albucasis command to make a cruciform incision,
to take out all the fat, then join the wound by suture:
Briefly this is to slay a man alive, that which I have
never practiced nor counsel it to be done by the sur-
geon.
Fifth Operation
Albucasis and Paulus Aegineta would cauterize the
liver and spleen with hot irons, which the modern have
never practiced, for indeed reason manifestly repugns
it.
Sixth Operation
In the paracentesis which is made in the third kind
of dropsy called ascites, Cehus Aurelianus command-
eth to make many openings in the belly. Albucasis
applies nine actual cauteries, to wit four about the
navel, one on the stomach, one on the spleen, one on
the liver: two on the back near the vertebrae, one of
them near the breast, the last near the stomach.
Aetius is likewise of the same will to open the belly
with many cauteries. Paulus Aegineta commands to
apply five actual cauteries to make the said paracen-
tesis. But abhorring such a manner of burning of
which you speak much in your third book, I show an-
other kind of practice which is done by making a simple
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 149
incision in the said belly, as may be seen in my works
with happy success. I do not show young men in my
works the manner of burning which the ancients have
called iniibulare, because that is not practiced although
Celsus writes of it.
Seventh Operation
In the sciatica proceeding from an internal cause in-
asmuch as the mucosities (vicious humors) displace the
bones from their place, Paul directs to burn the
said joint down to the bone. Dioscorides commands the
same, which I do not find expedient taking indication
from the subjacent parts, for there, where one would
burn, it is in the place of four twin muscles, beneath
which passeth the great nerve descending from the
sacrum, which being burnt, I leave it to you to think
what would happen, as Galen remarked, expressly talk-
ing of the ustion which it is necessary to make on the
humerus.
Eighth Operation
In outward dislocation of the vertebrae, Hippocrates
commands to bind the man straight on a ladder, the
arms and legs tied and bound, then after having raised
the ladder to the top of a tower, or the ridge of a house,
with a great cable in a pulley, let the patient fall like
lead on the firm pavement, which Hippocrates said
150 AMBROISE PARE
was done in his time. But I do not teach any such way
of giving the strappado to men, but I show to the sur-
geon in my works, the method of reducing them safely
and without great pain.
Moreover, I would be sorry to follow the saying
of the said Hippocrates in the third book of "De Mor-
bis," where he directs that in the disease called volvulus
it is necessary to blow up the belly with a bellows, put-
ting the nozzle in the rectum, then blowing until the
belly becomes much stretched, afterwards giving an
emollient clyster, and stopping the fundament with a
sponge. Such practice is not made to-day, therefore
marvel not that I have not cared to speak of it.
And you not being content with rhapsodizing the
operations of the aforesaid authors, have also taken
much from my works as every man may know, which
showeth f;fpenly that there is nothing of your invention
in your "Guide to Surgeons."
I leave aside another infinity of useless operations
which you quote in your book, without knowing how
stupid they are, never having seen them practiced, but
because you have found them written in the books of
the ancients, you have put them in your book.
Moreover, you say that you will show me my lesson
in the operations of surgery. It seems to me that you
will not know how, because I have not learned them only
in my study and by hearing through many and divers
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 151
years the lectures of doctors in medicine, but, as I have
written before in my "Epistle to the Reader," I had
made my residence in the Hotel Dieu of Paris for the
space of three years, where I had the means to see and
learn many of the works of surgery on an infinity of
sick, together with anatomy on a great number of dead
bodies, as I have oftentimes made very sufficient proof
publicly in the schools of medicine of Paris. My good
fortune has made me see yet much more. For being
called to the service of the kings of France (four of
whom I have served) I have found myself in company
in battle skirmishes, assaults and sieges of cities and
fortresses, as also I have been shut up in cities with
the besieged, having charge of treating the wounded.
Moreover, I have dwelt long years in this great and
famous city of Paris, where, thanks be to God, I have
always lived in very good reputation with all men, and
have never held the last rank among those of my estate,
seeing that there was never found any cure, was it never
so difficult nor great, that my hand and my counsel have
not been required, as I make seen by this work. Now
dare you (these things being understood) say that you
will teach me the works of surgery, seeing that you
have never gone forth from your study?
The operations of the same are four in general (as
we have heretofore declared) where you make of them
but three; to wit, to join the separated, to separate the
152 AMBROISE PARE
continuous, and to remove the superfluous: and the
fourth that I make is as necessary as a useful inven-
tion, to adjust that which is in default, as I have demon-
strated heretofore.
Also you wish that the surgeon should only perform
the three operations aforesaid, without undertaking to
order a simple cataplasm, saying it is that which comes
to your part of Medicine, and that the ancients (in the
discourse which you have made to the reader) have
divided the followers of medicine into three groups,
to wit, the dieticians, the apothecaries, and the surgeons.
But I would gladly ask of you who hath made the
partition, and [decided] where anything should be
done, who are those which are content with their part,
without some enterprise on the other? For Hippo-
crates, Galen, Aetius, Avicenna, in brief all the physi-
cians, as well Greeks, Latins, and Arabians, have
never treated of the one but that they have treated of
the other, for the great affinity and tie that there is be-
tween the two, and it would be very difficult to do other-
wise. Now when you wish to put surgery so low, you
contradict yourself, for in your prefatory epistle that
you dedicated to the late Monsieur de Martigues, you
say that surgery is the most noble part of physick, as
well by reason of its origin, antiquity, necessity, as by the
certainty in its actions, because it operates "luce
operta," as learnedly writes Celsus at the commence-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 153
merit of the seventh book. Therefore, it is to be be-
lieved that you have never gone from your study except
to teach the theory (if you have been able to do it) .
The operations of surgery are learnt by the eye
and by the touch.
I will say you are like a young lad of Low Brittany, ^^^^
plump buttocked and thickset, who demanded leave of similitude
his father to come to Paris to learn French. When he
arrived, the organist of Notre Dame found him at the
gate of the Palace, and took him to blow the organ,
where he was three years. Finding he could speak
French somewhat,^^ he returned to his father telling
him that he spoke good French, and, moreover, that
he knew how to play well on the organ. His father re-
ceived him very joyfully, because he was so wise in so
short a time. He went to the organist of their great
church, and prayed him to permit his son to play on the
organ, to the end that he might know if his son was as
good a master as he said he was. Which the master or-
ganist accorded willingly. Coming to the organ he
threw himself with a great leap to the bellows. The
master organist bade him play and that he would blow
for him. Then this good organist said to him that he
knew nothing else than how to blow. I believe likewise,
"The Low Bretons speak a Celtic patois very dissimilar to French as
spoken in Paris. In the time of Pare the diflSculty of communication be-
tween the different parts of France made the difference even more marked
than at a later period.
154 AMBROISE PARE
mon petit maistre, that you know nothing else but to
cackle in a chair, but I will play on the keys and make
the organs resound, that is to say that I will perform
the operations of surgery, that which you know not at
all how to do, because you have not budged from your
study and the schools, as I have said. And likewise as
I have before written in the "Epistle to the Reader,"
that the laborer talks in vain of the seasons, discoursing
of the manner of cultivating the earth, to show what
seeds are proper to each soil, but all that is nothing if
he put not his hand to the tools and couples not the
oxen together, and harnesses them to the plough. How-
ever, this would be no great thing if you know not the
practice, because a man may do good surgery, although
he had no tongue, as CorneHus Celsus hath well noted
(in book I) when he says, "Morhos non eloquentia, sed
remediis cur art: quce si quis elinguis, usu discretus bene
norit, himc aliquanto major em medicum futurum, quam
si sine v^u linguam suam excoluerit." That is to say
Cornelius Celsus said, "Diseases are cured not by elo-
quence, but by remedies well and duly applied, which
if any sage and discreet man, though he have no tongue,
know well the proper usage, he shall become a greater
physician, than if without practice, he ornamented well
his language." Which you yourself confess in your
said book by a quatrain which is thus:
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 155
Ce n'est pas tout en Chirurgie
De jargonner: mais le plus beau
Est que les handes on manie,
Le feu, les las, et les ciseaux.^^
Aristotle in the first chapter of the first book of his
"Metaphysics" says experience is aknost like science,
and by it art and science have been invented, and in
fact we see those who are experienced attain sooner to
that which they intend, than those who have reason
without experience, because the said experience is a
knowledge of things singular and individual, and
science on the contrary a knowledge of things universal.
But that which is individual is more healable than that
which is universal. Therefore those who have experi-
ence are more sage and more esteemed, than those who
are in default of it, because they know that which they
do. Moreover, I say that
Science without experience
Yields not great assurance.
Alciat, a Milanese doctor, boasted one day that his
glory was greater and more illustrious than that of
counsellors, presidents, and masters or requests because
he said he made them and that it was by him that they
"As rendered by Johnson:
To talk's not all in Chirurgfons Art,
But working with the hands;
Aptly to dresse each greeved part.
And guide, fire, knife and bands.
MalgaigTie in a footnote points out that Pare is mistaken in attributing
this quatrain to Gourmelen. It was after the title of the book in Courtin's
translation of Gourmelen's work, and is accompanied by the statement
"Quatrain du Translateur."
156 AMBROISE PARE
came to be such. A counsellor responded to him that
he was like a whetstone which made the knife sharp
and ready to cut not being able to do so itself, and
quoted to him verses of Horace :
. fungehatur vire cotis, acutum
Reddere quae ferum valet, exors ipsa secandi.
But see, mon petit maistre, my response to your
calumnies, and pray you, if you have the good grace
to be willing (for the public) to review and correct your
book as soon as you can, not to hold young surgeons
in this error by the reading of the same where you teach
them to use hot irons after the amputation of limbs to
staunch the blood, seeing that there is another means
not so cruel and more safe and easy. Moreover, if to-
day after an assault of a city where many soldiers have
had arms and legs broken and carried off by cannon-
shots, or cutlasses, or other instruments of war, to
staunch the flow of blood if you should use hot irons, it
would be needful to make a forge and much coal to
heat them ; and also the soldiers would have you in such
horror for this cruelty, that they would kill you like a
calf, as was formerly done to one of the chief surgeons
of Rome.^^ Which you will find written before in
chapter 3 of the "Introduction to Surgery." Now
^»Par6 here refers to the story of Archagelus, whom in the text of his
"Introduction to Surgery," he calls Arcabuto, who was held in such horror
for the cruelty of his operations by the people of Rome, that they dragged
him from his house and stoned him to death on the Field of Mars,
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 157
for fear lest the sectators of your writing should fall
into such inconvenience, I pray them to follow the
aforesaid method, which I have showed to be true and
certain, and approved by authority, reason, and expe-
rience.
Cavalryman of the fifteenth century.
(Lacroix.)
The Journey to Turin in 1536^^
OREOVER, I will here show to my
readers the towns and places where I
have been enabled to learn the art of
surgery, always the better to instruct
the young surgeon.
And first in the year 1536 the great King Fran9ois
sent a great army to Turin to recover the cities and
castles which had been taken by the Marquis de
Guast,^^ lieutenant-general of the emperor.
^"The campaign in which Pare made his debut as an army surgeon was
in 1537, not in 1536 as Pare dates it in the text. The peace of Cambrai
had been made between Francois I and the Emperor Charles V in 1529.
During the intervening years Francois had been constantly making prep-
arations to strengthen himself for another struggle with his redoubtable
adversary. He had made a treaty with Henry VIH of England and in 1534
had shocked all Catholic Europe by entering into an alliance with the
Sultan of Turkey. He had also betrothed his son, afterwards Henri II,
to Catherine de Medici, niece of Pope Clement VII, in order to secure the
friendship of Italy. In 1535, Charles V sent a strong force to attack the
Turks whose piratical fleets preyed on the commerce of the Mediter-
ranean. This expedition captured Tunis and set free thousands of Chris-
tians held in slavery by the Turks. In 1536 a secret agent of Francois
I at the court of Sforza, Duke of Milan, was put to death by the Duke
at the instigation of the Emperor. This served as a pretext to Francois
for the invasion of Italy. Montaigne in chapter ix of book i of his
"Essays" tells how he confounded the ambassador sent by Sforza to ex-
plain his servant's death. While Fran9ois advanced into Italy the Em-
peror sent his army into Provence. The French instead of resisting,
devastated the country; lack of food and forage caused the failure of his
expedition. In 1537 the French again advanced into Italy and it
was at the Pass of Suze near Mont Cenis that Pare saw his first fight.
The Dauphin, subsequently Henri II, accompanied the expedition. The
Imperial troops occupied the Pass in great strength but the French
surprised them by climbing above their position on some apparently in-
accessible heights and won a great victory.
^"Marquis du Guast, or del Guasto, a very able general, nephew of
the famous general Pescara.
158
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 159
Where Monsieur the Constable,^- then grand mas-
ter, was heutenant-general of the army, and Monsieur
de Monte jan-^ was colonel general of the infantry, to
whom I was then surgeon. A great part of the army
having arrived at the Pass of Suze, we found the enemy
holding the passage and having made certain forts and
trenches insomuch that to make them dislodge and quit
the place, it was necessary to fight, where there were
many killed and wounded, as many on one side as the
other, but the enemy were constrained to retire and f^^^^"'^ ^f
gain the castle, which was taken in part by Captain
Le Rat, who climbed with many soldiers from his com-
pany on a little hill, from whence they fired directly
^Anne de Montmorenci (1492-1567), one of the great figures of French
history. He was an uncle of Admiral Coligny. In 1541 the hatred of
the Duchesse d'Etampes, mistress of Fran9ois I, succeeded in gettiVig him
into disgrace and he was dismissed from the court. Henri \l restored him
to favor. Brantome's "Vies des Dames lUustres" gives another version of
his disgrace. He says that the Constable once told Francois I that if he
wished to exterminate the heretics in his kingdom he should commence
at the court and with his nearest relatives, naming his sister, Marguerite
of Navarre, as one of the chief heretics. This was a dangerous step on
the part of Montmorenci because Francois dearly loved his sister. The
latter naturally vowed to be revenged on the Constable and was very
influential in bringing about his fall. The day that her daughter, a mere
child, was married to the Due de Cleves, when the time came to go into
the church the child could not walk because of the weight of her robe
of gold and silver and jewels. Francois I ordered the Constable to pick
her up and carry her in, which astonished the court and infuriated the
Constable. Marguerite said, "See the man who wished to ruin me with
my brother now serving to carry my daughter to church." The Constable
in a fury said, "My favor is ended and I bid it adieu." He left the court
that night. He was killed at the battle of St. Denis.
=^Rene de Montejan, a gallant soldier who had been taken prisoner at
BrigonoUes in the preceding year. He was appointed Governor of Pied-
mont in 1537, and made a marshal of France in 1538. He married
Philippe de Montespedon. She subsequently married Charles de Bourbon,
Prince de La Roche-sur-Yon. She was godmother at the baptism of
Pare's son, Ambroise, on May 30, 1576, a little touch showing how Fare's
early attachments continued throughout his long life.
i6o AMBROISE PARE
on the enemy. He received a shot from an arquebus
in the ankle of his right foot, wherewith he suddenly
fell to the ground and then said, "Now the Rat is
taken." I dressed him, and God healed him.^*
We thronged into the city and passed over the dead
bodies and some that were not yet dead, hearing them
cry under the feet of our horses, which made a great
pity in my heart, and truly I repented that I had gone
forth from Paris to see so pitiful a spectacle. Being
in the city, I entered a stable thinking to lodge my
horse and that of my man, where I found four dead
soldiers and three who were propped against the wall,
their faces wholly disfigured, and they neither saw,
nor heard, nor spake, and their clothes yet flaming from
the gunpowder which had burnt them. Beholding them
with pity there came an old soldier who asked me if
there was any means of curing them. I told him no.
At once he approached them and cut their throats
gently and without anger. Seeing this great cruelty,
I said to him that he was a bad man. He answered me
that he prayed God that when he should be in such a
case, he might find someone who would do the same for
him, to the end that he might not languish miserably.
And to return to our discourse, the enemy was sum-
moned to surrender, which they did, and went forth,
"Malgaigne directs attention to this as the first example of the famous
phrase which has justly added such great honor to the modesty of Par^.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 161
their lives only saved, and a white staff in their hands,
but the greater part went to gain the Chateau de
Villaine, where there were about two hundred Span-
iards. Monsieur le Connestable would not leave them
in his rear in order to render the road free. The
Chateau is seated upon a little mountain, which gave
great assurance to those within that we could not place
the artillery so as to bear upon them. They were sum-
moned to surrender themselves, or they should be cut in
pieces, which they flatly refused, making answer that
they were as good and faithful servants of the Emperor,
as Monsieur le Connestable could be of the King his response
master. Their answer heard, we mounted two great ^'
cannon by night with ropes drawn with the strength
of arms by the Swiss and Lansquenets when as ill-luck
would have it, the two cannon being placed, a gunner
by inadvertence, set fire to a sack full of gunpowder,
by which he was burned together with ten or twelve
soldiers, and further the flame of the powder was the
cause of discovering our artillery, which caused those
in the Chateau to fire all the night many arquebus
shots at the place where they had been able to discover
the two cannon, which killed and wounded a number
of our men. The next day, early in the morning, we
fired with the battery, which in a few hours made a
breach ; which being done, they demanded a parley, but
it was too late for in the meantime our French infantry,
i62 AMBROISE PARE
seeing them surprised, mounted in the breach, and cut
them all in pieces, except a very pretty, young lusty
girl of Piedmont, whom a great seigneur wished to
have to keep him company in the night for fear of the
greedy wolf (loupgarou). The captain and ensign
were taken alive but soon after hung and strangled on
the battlements of the gate of the city, to the end that
they might give example and fear to the imperial sol-
Exemplary ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ foolish, aS tO wish to hold
punishment g^ch placcs against so great an army.
Now all the said soldiers at the Chateau, seeing our
men coming with a great fury, did all they could to
defend themselves, and killed and wounded a great
number of our soldiers with pikes, arquebuses, and
stones, where the surgeons had much work cut out for
them. Now I was at that time a freshwater soldier,
I had not yet seen wounds made by gunshot at the first
dressing. It is true that I had read in Jean de Vigo,
first book, "Of Wounds in General," chapter eight,
Counsel of that wounds made by firearms participate of vene-
de Vigo nosity, because of the powder, and for their cure he com-
mands to cauterize them with oil of elder, scalding
hot, in which should be mixed a little theriac and
in order not to err before using the said oil, knowing
that such a thing would bring great pain to the patient,
I wished to know first, how the other surgeons did for
the first dressing which was to apply the said oil as
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 163
hot as possible, into the wound with tents and setons,
of whom I took courage to do as they did. At last
my oil lacked and I was constrained to apply in its place Experience
tptlcLpv^ ft
a digestive made of the yolks of eggs, oil of roses and ^^„ hardy
turpentine. That nie^ht I could not sleep at my ease,
fearing by lack of cauterization that I should find the
wounded on whom I had failed to put the said oil dead
or empoisoned, which made me rise very early to visit
them, where beyond my hope, I found those upon whom ^^
I had put the digestive medicament feeling little pain, success
and their wounds without inflammation or swelling
having! rested fairly well throughout the night; the
others to whom I had apphed the said boiling oil, I
found feverish, with great pain and swelling about their
wounds. Then I resolved with myself never more to
bum thus cruelly poor men wounded with gunshot.
Being at Turin, I found a surgeon who was famous
above all for good treatment of gunshot wounds, into
whose grace I found means to insinuate myself, to have
the recipe which he called his balm, with which he
11 111 1 Recipe for
treated gunshot wounds, and he made me court him for an excellent
years before I could draw his recipe from him. At ° "^ , ^
•' ^ arquebus
last by gifts and presents he gave it to me, which was rounds
to boil in oil of lilies, little puppies just born, with earth-
worms prepared with Venetian turpentine. Then I
was joyful and my heart made glad, to have understood
i64 AMBROISE PARE
his remedy, which was like to that which I had obtained
by chance.
See how I learned to treat wounds made by gun-
shot, not from books.
Monsieur le Marechal de Monte j an remained lieu-
tenant-general for the King in Piedmont, having ten
or twelve thousand men in garrison in the cities and
chateaux, who often fought among themselves with
swords and other weapons, and even with arquebuses;
and if there were four wounded, I had always three
of them, and if it was a question of cutting off an arm
or a leg, or to trepan, or to reduce a fracture or dislo-
cation, I brought it well to an end. The said Lord
Marshal sent me sometimes this way, sometimes that
way to dress the designated soldiers who were wounded
in other cities besides Turin, insomuch that I was al-
ways in the country, one way or the other.
Monsieur le Marechal sent to Milan to get a phy-
sician who had no less reputation than the deceased
Monsieur le Grand for success in practice, to treat him
for an hepatic flux, whereof at last he died. This phy-
sician was some time at Turin to treat him, and was
often called to visit the wounded, where he always
found me, and I would consult with him and some other
surgeons, and when we had resolved to do any serious
work of surgery, it was Ambroise Pare that put his
hand thereto, where I did it promptly and dexterously.
Reduction of Shoulder Dislocation.
(PaH, Edition 1585.)
Author
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 167
and with great assurance, insomuch that the said
physician wondered at me being so ready in the opera-
tions of surgery, seeing my youth. One day discours- ^ll''J"^^
ing with the said Lord Marechal he said to him : ity of the
*'Signor, tu hai un Chirurgico giovane di anni, ma egli
e vecchio di sapere e di esperientia; Guardalo bene,
perche egli ti fara servicio et honore." That is to say,
"Thou hast a young surgeon in age, but he is old in
knowledge and experience : Guard him well for he will
do thee service and honor." But the good man knew
not that I had dwelt tiiree years in the Hotel Dieu de
Paris to treat the sick there.
At last Monsieur la Marechal died of his hepatic
flux. Being dead the King sent Monsieur le Marechal
d'Annebaut^' to be in his place who did me the honor
to pray me to remain with him, and he would treat me
as well or better than Monsieur le Marechal de Mon-
te j an. Which I would not do for the grief that I had
for the loss of my master, who loved me infinitely, and
I him in the same way; so I came back to Paris.
*Claude d'Annebaut, Baron de Retz, counsellor, chamberlain of the
King, etc., had been a prisoner at Pavia in 1525. He commanded the
French army in Piedmont and captured Turin. He was lieutenant-general
in Normandy with Admiral Chabot in 1536. In 1538 he was made a mar-
shal of France. In 1539 he was governor-general of Piedmont and am-
bassador to Venice. He was made admiral of France in 1544, and died
at la Fere in 1552.
The Journey to Marolles and Low Brittany, 154-3
II WENT to the Camp of Marolles with
deceased Monsieur de Rohan ^^ where I
was surgeon of his company, where was
( the King in Person. He was advertised
by Monsieur d'Estampes,^^ Governor of Brittany, that
the English had made sail to descend on Lower Brit-
tany and prayed him that he would be willing to send
to his succor Messieurs de Rohan and de Laval ^^ be-
cause they were the seigneurs of that country, and by
their favor those of that country would repulse the
enemy and guard against their landing. Having re-
**Par6 had returned to Paris early in 1539. The next few years, while
he remained there, were of great importance in his career. He talked
to Sylvius (Jacques du Bois), the famous professor in Paris, of his dis-
covery that by placing the patient in the attitude in which he was at
the time the wound was received the course of the bullet could be more
easily gauged, and Sylvius made him promise to publish his discovery.
He passed his examinations and was admitted to the Barber's community.
He was married to Jeanne Mazelin in 1541. The journey to Marolles was
really made subsequent to that to Perpignan, which occurred in 1542, but
in his book, Pare placed that to Marolles first. Marolles, or Maroilles,
was a village about thirteen kilometres west of Avesnes.
"Rene de Rohan, known as Viscomte de Rohan, and by many other
titles, had married Isabelle d'Albret, daughter of Jean, King of Navarre,
in 1534. He was killed November 4th, 1552, at Saint Nicholas near Nancy.
Pare's first book "La Methode de traictes les playes faictes par hacque-
butes et aultres bastons a feu: at de celles qui sont faictes par fleches,
dardz, et faictes par la pouldre a canon, composee par Ambroise Par6,
maistre Barbier Chirugien a Paris" was dedicated to Monsieur de Rohan.
^"Jean de Brosse. He married Anne de Pisseleu, a mistress of
Francois I.
"Claude, called Guy, sixteenth of the name, Comte de Laval, son of
Guy XV and Anne de Montmorenci, married Claude de Foix, daughter of
Odet de Foix, Seigneur de Lautrec and Charlotte d'Albret. He died in
1547. His widow married Charles de Luxembourg, Viscomte de Martigues.
168
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 169
ceived this advertisement he [the King] despatched the
said seigneurs to go in haste to the succor of their
country; and to each was given as much power as to
the governor, in such fashion that they were all three
lieutenants of the King. They willingly took this
charge (upon themselves) and set forth promptly post-
ing and they took me with them as far as Landreneau.
There we found everyone in arms, tocsin sounding
from all sides, yea, for five or six leagues about the
harbors, to wit, Brest, Couquet, Crozon, le Fou, Doulac,
Laudanec, each well furnished with artillery, as can- Good
1 . 1.1 1 munitions
non, demi-cannon, bastards, musquets, passe-volants,
field-pieces, culverins, serpentines, basilisks, sakers, fal-
cons, falconneaux, flutes, orgues, arquebuses a croc:
briefly all who came together were well-furnished with
all sorts and fashions of artillery, and many soldiers,
as well Breton as French, to prevent the English from
making their descent as they had resolved at their going
forth from England.
The army of the enemy came within cannon-shot,
and when we saw them wishing to land, we saluted them
with cannon-shot, and discovered our soldiers together
with our artillery. They fled to sea again, where I was
right joyous to see their vessels making sail, which were
in good number and in good order, and seemed to be
a forest marching on the sea. I saw also a thing where-
at I marvelled much, which was that the balls from the
lyo
AMBROISE PARE
great cannon made great bounds and grazed upon the
water as they do on the land. But to make short, our
TheEnglish Enghsh did us no hurt, and returned into England,
retire /» j i o '
safe and whole, and we left in peace, remained in this
country in garrison, until we were well assured that
their army was dispersed. In the meantime our horse-
Dances of
village girls
Wrestlers
Bombards on Wheels and a Platform.
{Lacroix.)
men exercised themselves often in running at the ring,
combating with swords (fencing) in such sort that
there was always someone in trouble, and I had always
something to exercise me. Monsieur d'Estampes in
order to give pastime and pleasure for the said
Seigneurs de Rohan and de Laval and other gentlemen,
made a great number of village girls come to the sports
to sing songs in Low Breton, where their harmony was
like the croaking of frogs when they are in love. More-
over, he made them dance the tnari of Brittany, with-
out moving the feet and hips. He made them hear and
see much (that was) good. At other times he made the
wrestlers come from the towns and villages, when there
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
171
would be a prize, the play was not ended but that some
had an arm or a leg broken, or the shoulder or hip dis-
located.
There was a little man of Low Brittany, square A little
J. -, Breton zvho
bodied and well set, who held a long tmie the credit ot ^^^ ^ ^^oi
the field, and by his skill and strength threw five or six fvrestler
Arquebus a Rouet and Arquebus a Meche.
(Lacroix.)
to the ground. There came a great Dativo, master of
a school, who was said to be one of the best wrestlers
of all Brittany. He entered into the lists, having cast
aside his long jacket, in hose and doublet, and being
near the little man it seemed that if he had been at-
tached to his belt he could not have hindered him from
running. Notwithstanding when each of them took
collar to collar, they were a long time without doing any-
thing, and we thought they would remain equal in
strength and skill ; but the little square man cast himself
with an ambling leap under this great Dativo, and cast
172
AMBROISE PARE
him on his shoulder, and threw him on the ground on
his back, all spread like a frog: and then everyone com-
menced to laugh at the strength and skill of the little
Bombards, or Mortars, on Movable Carriages.
(Lacrows.)
square man. The great Dativo was furious to have
been thus thrown to earth by such a small man: he got
up in great anger, and wished to have his revenge.
They took hold again of their necks, and were again a
long time at their hold, not being able to put to ground:
at last the big man let himself fall on the little one, and
in falling put his elbow in the pit of his stomach, and
burst his heart and killed him stark dead. And know-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 173
ing he had given him his death's blow he took up his
long jacket and went away with his tail between his
leffs, and hid himself. Seeing that the heart returned TJ^^ ^^^'^^
° * ° Breton
not to the little man, for wine or vinegar nor any other killed
thing that was presented to him, I approached him and
felt his pulse, which did not beat at all : then I said that
he was dead. At which the Bretons who had witnessed
the wrestling, said loudly in their patois, "Andraze
meuraquet enes rac un bloa so abeudeux henelep e barz
an gouremon enel ma hoa engoustun." That is to say,
"that is not in the sport." And someone said that this
great Dativo was accustomed to do thus, and it had
been but a year that he had done the same thing in a ^** ^^j^f
opened by
wrestle. I wished to open the dead body to know what the Author
had been the cause of this sudden death: I found much
blood in the thorax and in the lower part of the belly.
I sought to find out any opening in the place from
whence could come forth such a quantity of blood, that / would
which I could not, for all the diligence that I knew how '^^^^ ^7"
° pleased to
to use. Now, I believe, it was per Diapedesin or Anas- gee you,
tomosin, that is to say, "the opening of the mouths of ^^^"^^^^ '
the vessels, or by their porosities." The poor little Itnow how
. i> -\iT ' 1-n to find the
wrestler was buried. 1 took leave 01 Messieurs de Ko-
han, de Laval and d'Estampes; Monsieur de Rohan
made me a present of fifty double ducats and a horse
for my man, and Monsieur d'Estampes of a diamond
of the value of thirty ecus. Thus I returned to Paris.
openmg
The Journey to Perpignan, 1543^^
OMETIME after Monsieur de Rohan
took me posting with him to the camp
at Perpignan. Being there the enemy
made a sortie and surrounded three
pieces of our artillery, where they were beaten back to
the gates of the city. Which was not done without
many being killed and wounded, among the others.
Monsieur de Brissac,^^ who was then grand master of
the artillery, with an arquebus shot in the shoulder. Re-
turning to his tent, all the wounded followed him, hop-
ing to be dressed by the surgeons who would dress him.
Being come to his tent, and laid on his bed, the bullet
was sought by three or four surgeons, the most expert
"This journey was made in 1542, one year before the date which Par6
placed at the head of his account, and in the year previous to his sojourn
at Marolles. Perpignan was a considerable town on the Gulf of Lyons.
It was held by the Spaniards. On this occasion it was besieged by the
French under the Dauphin and Annebaut from August 26 to October
4, when the siege had to be raised because of lack of provisions, an epi-
demic of dysentery which caused many deaths and an inimdation of the
camp, which was in the valley of the Tet. In removing their camp, the
French lost much baggage and some of their men were drowned in the
flood. Pare posted to the Siege from Paris with Monsieur de Rohan, and
as a result of his long ride on horseback, he suffered an attack of haema-
turia when they reached Lyons.
"Charles de Cosse, Comte de Brissac, called "le beau Brissac," was
successively named colonel of the infantry, grand master of the artillery,
marshal of France, and governor of Picardy. In spite of his warlike
career, he died of gout in 1563, aged 57 years. He married Charlotte
d'Esquetot, and one of his daughters by her married Charles, Comte de
Mansfield.
174
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 175
of the army, who could not find it, but said it had
entered into his body.
In the end, he called me to know if I could be more Address of
skillful than they, because he had known me in Pied- '^^ Author
mont. I at once made him rise from his bed that he
should put himself in the same position that he was
when he was wounded, which he did, and took a javelin
in his hands, just as when he had a pike to fight. I
placed my hand about his wound, and found the ball
in the flesh, making a little swelling under the shoulder
blade. Having found it, I showed them the place where
it was and it was taken out by Nicole Lavernault,^^
surgeon of Monsieur le Dauphin, who was lieutenant
of the King in this army; nevertheless, the honor re-
mained with me for having found it.
I saw one thing of great remark, which was this:
a soldier in my presence gave one of his companions a
blow on the head with a halberd, penetrating even to
the left ventricle of the brain, without that he fell to
the ground. He that struck him said, he had heard that
he had cheated at dice, and he had taken from him a
great sum of money, and was accustomed to cheat.
They called me to dress him, which I did, as it were
finally, knowing that he would very soon die. Having
^'Nicolas Lavemault was one of the surgeons who was given mourning
for the funeral of Francois I. He was surgeon-in-ordinary to Henry II
and to Francois II and in 1559 became premier surgeon to Charles IX
He died towards the end of 1561 and Par6 succeeded him as premier sur-
geon to the King.
1^6 AMBROISE PARE
dressed him, he returned all alone to his quarters, which
were at least two hundred paces distant. I said to one
of his companions that he should send for a priest, to
dispose of the affairs of his soul. He procured him one
who stayed with him to the last breath. The next
day the patient sent for me by his wench, habited as a
boy, to dress him; which I would not, fearing he would
die in my hands; and to be quit of it, I told her the
dressing must not be removed until the third day, the
rather that he might die without being touched. The
third day he came to find me, staggering to my tent,
accompanied by his wench, and prayed me affection-
ately to dress him, and showed me a purse wherein
might be an hundred or six-score pieces of gold, and
(said) he would content me to my desire; notwithstand-
ing for all that I deferred taking off his dressing, fear-
ing lest he should die at the same instant. Certain
gentlemen desired me to go to dress him, which I did
at their request; but in dressing him, he died in my
hands, in a convulsion. Now the priest stayed with
him until death, who seized upon the purse, for fear
that another should take it, saying that he would say
masses for his poor soul, moreover, he possessed him-
self of his clothes and everything else.
I have recited this history as a monstrous thing,
that the soldier, having received this great stroke, fell
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 177
not to the ground, and that he kept his reason until
his death.
Soon after the camp was broken for divers reasons;
one was that we were advertised that four companies
of Spaniards had entered Perpignan: the other, that
the plague began to be much in our camp, and it was
told us by the people of the country that shortly there
would be a great overflowing of the sea, which might
drown us all. And the presage which they had was a
very great wind from the sea, which rose in such sort
that there remained not one tent which was not broken
and thrown to earth, for all the strength and diligence
we could put forth: and the kitchens being all uncov-
ered the wind raised the dust and sand, which salted
and powdered our meat in such fashion that we could
not eat it, so that it was necessary to boil it in pots and
other covered vessels. Now we did not decamp so
early, but that there were many carts and carters, mules
and muleteers drowned in the sea with great loss of
baggage. The camp broken, I returned to Paris.
The Journey to Landredes, 15 AJ^*
ING FRANQOIS raised a great army
to victual Landrecies. On the other side
the Emperor had not less men, indeed
many more to wit, eighteen thousand
Germans, ten thousand Spaniards, six thousand Wal-
loons, ten thousand English, and thirteen or fourteen
thousand horse. I saw the two armies near cne another,
within cannon-shot, and it was thought they would never
part without giving battle. There were some foolish
gentlemen who would approach the enemy's camp.
There were fired at them some shots from passe-
volants.'* Some remained dead on the place, others had
their arms and legs carried away. The King having
accomplished that which he desired, which was to victual
Landrecies, retired with his army to Guise, which was
the day after All Saints, 1544, and from there I returned
to Paris.
"Landrecies is a town on the Sambre. It was besieged by the Em-
peror's army in 1543 and it was in October, 1543 (not as in the text 1544)
that the King made his expedition to bring supplies to the people shut
up in it.
»*Field-guns.
Due DE GuisE^ Francois de Lorraine
(From a liortrait in the Louvre attributed to Franqois Clouet.)
The Journey to Boulogne, 15 A5
LITTLE while after we went to Bou-
logne, where the English, seeing our
army, abandoned the forts which they
held, to wit, Moulambert, le petit Para-
dis, Monplasir, the fort of Chastillon, le Portet, the fort
of Dardelot. One day, going through the camp to dress
my wounded, the enemy who were in the Tour d'Ordre,
fired a piece of ordnance, thinking to kill two men-at-
arms who had stopped to talk together. It happened that
the ball passed very close to one of them, which threw
him to the ground, and it was thought the said ball
had touched him, which it did not at all, but only the
wind of the said ball, in the middle of his doublet,
with such force, that all the exterior part of his thigh be-
came livid and black, and he could only stand with great
difficulty. I dressed him, and made many scarifications
to let out the bruised blood, which the wind of the said
bullet had made, and the rebounds which it made on
the earth killed four soldiers, who remained stark dead
on the place.
I was not far from this shot, in such manner that
I felt somewhat the moved air, without doing me any
harm except a fright which made me stoop my head
179
i8o AMBROISE PARE
very low, but the bullet was already far away. The
soldiers mocked me of having fear of a ball which had
already passed. Mon petit maistre, I believe if you had
been there, that I had not been afraid all alone, and
that you would have had your part of it.
What shall I say more? Monseigneur le Due de
Guise, Fran(?ois de Lorraine^^ was wounded before
Boulogne with a thrust of a lance which entering above
the right eye declining towards the nose, passed through
Wound of on the other side between the ear and the nucha with
^ie Guise SO great violence that the head of the lance, with a
portion of the wood, was broken and remained with-
in [the wound], in such sort that it could not be
drawn out, but with great force, even with a smith's
pincers. Yet, notwithstanding this great violence,
which was not without fracture of bones, nerves, veins
■'Francois, Due de Guise and Prince de Joinville, was head of the
Guise family and their great party of adherents, whose power was almost
as great as that of the royal family in France. His sister, Marie de
Lorraine, who was the mother of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots,
married James V of Scotland. He was the father of Henri, Due
de Guise, and of the Cardinal de Guise who were murdered at Blois by
Henri III on December 23, 1588. The Dulse was born in 1519, and was
murdered by Jean de Poltrot, Sieur de Mere, February 18, 1563. He was
generally known as "le Balafre" in consequence of the scar left by this
terrible wound which he received at Boulogne. Malgaigne points out that
in this account of the treatment of the Duke, as in the first account which
he published in 1552, and in the intervening accounts in the several edi-
tions of his work, Par6 never stated that he was the surgeon who ex-
tracted the lance. It seems to have been a tradition that Pare was the
surgeon, but the first definite statement to that effect which Malgaigne
was able to find is contained in an anonymous life of Admiral Coligny,
published in 1686, nearly a century and a half after the event. It is cer-
tainly curious that Pare should not have desired to attach his name to
SO notable a cure if he had anything to do with it.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
181
and arteries, and other parts torn and broken, the said
seigneur by the grace of God, was healed. The said
seigneur went always to fight with his face uncovered;
that is why the lance passed out on the other side.
Removal of Lance and Arrow Heads.
(Pare, Edition 1585.)
The Journey to Germany, 1552
36
I
WENT on the expedition to Germany
in the year 1552, with Monsieur de
Rohan, captain of fifty men-at-arms,
where I was surgeon of his company,
as I have said before. In this expedition, Mon-
sieur le Connestable ^^ was general of the army ;
Monsieur de Chastillon,^^ since the admiral, was chief
and colonel of the infantry, having four regiments
of lansquenets under the conduct of Captains Recrod
and Ringrave, having each two regiments, each regi-
ment being of ten ensigns and each ensign of five hun-
^^For some years after the death of Francois I, in 1547, France was at
peace with the Emperor, but Charles V in his overgrown power was a
constant menace to France. In 1551, trouble began. Early in 1552, the
King of France, Henri II, assembled an army at Chalons, war having
been declared, and started on an expedition in the course of which
he secured possession of Toul, Metz, and Verdun, thus securing Alsace
and Lorraine. He captured Danvilliers, and threw a large army into
Metz under the command of Francois, Due de Guise (le Balafre) to de-
fend it against the army of the Emperor, which under the famous general
Alva was advancing to besiege it. The siege of Metz began on October
19, and was ended a few days before Christmas, its failure being due
as much to the inclemency of the weather and disease among the Em-
peror's soldiers, as to the valor of the defenders. Pare, as his narrative
shows, took an active part in many of the events of the campaign.
^'Anne de Montmorenci.
''Gaspard de Coligny, one of the greatest of Frenchmen, chief of the
Huguenot party, was born in 1517. On August 32, 1572, two days before
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, he was shot in the hand, as he was
leaving the Louvre, by a man named Maurevel, an adherent of the Guises.
Pare dressed his wound, and amputated the index finger of his right
hand. During the massacre, two days later, Coligny was one of the first
victims, being assassinated in I'Hotel Ponthieu, with some of his friends
who had gathered there with him. His mother Louise de Montmorenci,
to whom he owed his education as a Protestant, was a sister of the Con-
stable, Anne de Montmorency.
182
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 183
dred men. And besides these there was Captain
Chartel, who conducted the troops that the Protestant
princes had sent to the King. This infantry was very-
fine, accompanied by fifteen hundred men-at-arms,
each with a following of two archers, which would make
four thousand five hundred horse, and further two thou-
sand light horse, and as many arquebusiers on horse-
back, of whom INIonsieur d'Aumalle^* was general, be-
sides a great number of the nobility who came for their
pleasure. Moreover, the King was accompanied with
two hundred gentlemen of his household, some com-
manded by the Sieur de Boisy, the others by Sieur de
Ganappe and likewise by many princes. In his suite
he had yet to serve as his escort the French, the Scotch,
and the Swiss guards, amounting to six hundred sol-
diers ; and the companies of Monsieur le Dauphin, Mes-
sieurs de Guise, d'Aumalle, and of Marechal Saint
Andre,*® which mounted to four hundred lances; which
was a marvellous thing to see, such a fair company; and
with this equipage, the King entered into Toul and
Metz. I must not omit to say, that it was ordered that
the companies of Messieurs de Rohan, le Comte de
Sancerre and de Jarnac which were each of fifty men-
at-arms, marched on the wings of the camp, and God
"Monsieur le Due d'Aumalle was younger brother of Francois, Due de
Guise.
"Jacques d'Albon was made Marshal of France in 1547. He was killed
at the battle of Dreux in 1562.
i84 AMBROISE PARE
knows we had scarcity of victuals, and I protest to God
that three divers times I thought to die of hunger, and
it was not for lack of money, for I had enough of it, but
we could not get victuals by force, by reason that the
peasants withdrew them into the towns and castles. One
of the servants of the captain-ensign of the company of
Monsieur de Rohan, went with others to enter into a
church whither the peasants had retired, thinking to
find victuals by love or force; but among the rest this
man was well beaten, and came back with seven sword
cuts on the head, the least penetrating to the second
table of the skull; and he had four others on the arms,
and one on the right shoulder, which cut more than one-
half of the omoplate or shoulder blade. He was brought
back to his master's lodging, who seeing him so wounded,
and that they were to depart thence the next morning
at daybreak, and not thinking that he could ever be
cured, made dig a gi-ave, and would have cast him there-
Charity of -^^^ saying that otherwise the peasants would massacre
and kill him. Moved by pity I said to him that he could
yet recover if he were well dressed. Divers gentlemen
of the company begged his master to let him be brought
along with the baggage, since I had the will to dress
him, which he granted, and after I had had him clothed,
he was put in a cart on a bed well covered and well ac-
commodated, which was drawn by a horse. I did him
the office of physician, apothecary, surgeon, and cook.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 185
I dressed him to the end of his cure and God healed
him; insomuch that all those of the three companies
wondered at this cure. The men-at-arms of the com-
pany of Monsieur de Rohan, the first muster that was
made, gave me each an ecu, and the archers a half an ecu.
Different Kinds of Arrow Heads.
(Pare, Edition 1585.)
The Journey to Danvilliers, 1552
N his return from the camp in Ger-
many, King Henri besieged Danvilliers,
and those within would not render them-
selves. They were well beaten. Our pow-
der failed us, meanwhile, they shot continually at
our people. There was a shot from a culverin which
passed through the tent of Monsieur de Rohan, and hit
a gentleman's leg who was of his suite, which I had to
finish cutting off, which I did without applying the hot
irons. The King sent for powder to Sedan. Being
arrived, we began a greater battery than before, in such
sort that they made a breach. Monsieur de Guise and
the Constable being in the chamber of the King, told
him, and they concluded that the next day they would
give the assault, and were assured they would enter
within, and it was necessary to keep this secret, for
fear the enemy should be advertised of it, and each of
these promised not to speak of it to anyone. Now there
was a groom of the King's chamber, who being laid
under his camp-bed to sleep, heard that they had re-
solved to give the assault the next day. He presently
revealed it to a certain captain, and told him that for
certain they would give the assault the next day, and he
had heard it from the King and prayed the said captain
186
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 187
to talk of it to no one, which he promised ; but his prom-
ise did not hold, so at the same instant he went and told
it to a captain, and this captain to a captain, and the
captains to some of their soldiers, saying always, say
not a word of it, and it was so well hid that the next
morning very early there was seen the greater part of
the soldiers with their bucklers and their hose cut loose
at the knees for the better mounting of the breach.
The King was advertised of this rumor which ran
through the camp, that they should give the assault,
whereof he was much astonished, seeing that there were
but three in this advice, who had promised one another
to talk of it to no one. The King sent to seek Monsieur
de Guise to know if he had not talked of this assault;
he swore and affirmed to him that he had declared it to
no man, and Monsieur le Connestable said as much, who
said to the King it must be known expressly who had
declared this secret counsel, seeing they were but three.
Inquisition was made from captain to captain. In the
end they found the truth for one said, "It was such an
one told me." Another said as much, till at last they
came to the first, who declared he had learned it from
a groom of the King's chamber, named Guyard, native
of Blois, son of a barber of the late King Francis.
The King sent for him into his tent, in the presence of
Monsieur de Guise and Monsieur le Connestable, to
understand from whence he had it, and who had told
i88 AMBROISE PARE
him the assault was to be made. The King told him
that if he did not tell the truth, he would have him
hanged. Then he declared he laid down under his bed
thinking to sleep, and having heard it, he told it to a
What tt IS (ja^ptajjj ^ho was one of his friends, to the end that he
to reveal ^
the secrets might prepare himself with his soldiers to go the first to
of Princes ^^^ assault. Then the King knew the truth, and told
him that he should never serve him again, and that he
deserved to be hanged, and that he should never come
again to the Court.
My groom of the chamber went away with this
nightcap (bonnet de nuit) and couched with a surgeon-
in-ordinary of the King, named Master Louis of Saint
Andre. That night he gave himself six stabs with a
knife, and cut his throat, without that the said surgeon
perceived it until the morning, when he found his bed
all bloody and the dead body by him. He was very
much astonished to see this spectacle on his awakening,
and was afraid that they would say that he was the
cause of this murder, but he was soon discharged, know-
ing the cause, which was despair at having lost the good
friendship which the King bore to him. The said Guy-
ard was buried.
And those of Danvilliers, when they saw the breach
sufficient for us to enter, and the soldiers prepared for
the assault, rendered themselves at the discretion of the
King. The chiefs were kept prisoners, and the soldiers
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
189
sent away without their arms. The camp broken, I
returned to Paris, with my gentleman whose leg I had
cut off; I dressed him and God cured him. I sent him
to his house, merry, with a wooden leg, and he was con-
tent saying that he had got off cheap, not to have been
miserably burned to stop the blood, as you write in
your book, mon petit maistre.
Different Sorts of Cauteries.
(ParS, Edition 1585.)
The Journey to Cihdteau le Comte, 1552
OMETIME after King Henri raised an
army of thirty thousand men, to go and
lay waste the country about Hesdin. The
King of Navarre ^^ was chief of the army,
and lieutenant of the King. Being at Saint Denis
The King de France, waiting while the companies passed, he
of Navarre ^^^^ ^^^ j^^ ^^ Paris to comc speak with him. Beinff
prays the ^ "
Author to there, he prayed me (his request was to me a command) ,
*^ that I would follow him on this expedition ; and wishing
to make my excuses, saying that my wife was sick in
bed, he answered that there were physicians in Paris
to treat her, and that he as well had left his own, who
was of as good a house as mine, promising that he would
use me well, and forthwith commanded that I should
be lodged as one of his train. Seeing this great desire
which he had to take me with him, I durst not refuse
him.
I went to find him at Chateau le Comte, within
three or four leagues of Hesdin, where there were Impe-
rial soldiers in garrison, with a number of peasants
*^Antoine de Bourbon, Due de Vendome, who in 1548 became King of
Navarre, by his marriage with Jeanne d' Alb ret, Queen of Navarre. He was
the father of Henri IV. Pare attended him on his deathbed at the siege
of Rouen in 1562. Jeanne was married at the age of twelve to Guillaume
de la Marck, due de Cleves, but after the latter's surrender to Charles
V in 1543 the marriage was annulled.
190
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 191
from the surrounding country. He summoned them to
render themselves. They answered that he should never ^ ^^^^^
have them save in pieces, and let them do their worst, of desper-
and they would do their best to defend themselves.
They trusted in their fosses which were full of water,
but in two hours, with a great number of fascines and
some casks we made a way for the footmen to pass,
when they had to go to the assault, and they were at-
tacked with five cannon, and a breach was made large
enough to enter in, where those within received the
assault very vahantly, and not without killing and
wounding a great number of our men with arquebuses,
pikes, and stones. In the end when they saw themselves
forced, they set fire to their powder and munitions,
which was the cause of burning many of our men, and
of them likewise, and they were nearly all put to the
sword. Notwithstanding, some of our soldiers had taken
twenty or thirty hoping to have ransom for them. This
was known, and it was ordered by the council, that it
should be proclaimed by trumpet through the camp, that
all soldiers who had Spanish prisoners were to kill them,
on pain of being hanged and strangled ; which was done
in cold blood.
From there we went and burnt many villages of
which the barns were full of grain, to my very great
regret. We went as far as Tournahan, where there was
a very large tower, where the enemy retired, but no
192
AMBROISE PARE
Taking of
Chateau
le Comte
one was found in it: all was pillaged, and they blew
up the tower with a mine of gunpowder, which turned
it upside down. After that the camp was broken up
and I returned to Paris.
I will not yet forget to write, that the day after
Chateau le Comte was taken, Monsieur de Vendome
sent a gentleman individually to the King to make
report to him of all that which had passed, and among
other things he told the King, I had greatly done my
duty in dressing the wounded, and that I had shown
him eighteen bullets, which I had taken from the bodies
of the wounded, and that there were yet more that I
had not been able to find nor take out, and said more
good of me than there was by half. Then the King
said that he wished that I was in his service, and com-
manded Monsieur de Goguier, his first physician, to
write me that he would retain me in his service as one
of his surgeons-in-ordinary, and that I should go to
meet him at Rheims, within ten or twelve days; which
I did, when he did me the honor to command me, that
I should dwell near him, and that he would use me
well. Then I thanked him very humbly for the honor
it pleased him to do me, in calling me to this service.
The Journey to Metz, 1552
HE Emperor having besieged Metz with
more than six score thousand men, and
in the worst winter, as everyone knows, of
recent memory, and there were in the city
from five to six thousand men, and among the others
seven princes, to wit : Monsieur le Due de Guise, lieuten-
ant of the King, Messieurs d'Enghien,^- de Conde,^^ de ^^mes of
the Princes
Montpensier,^* de la Roche-sur-Yon,^^ Monsieur de Ne- who were at
mours,'*® and many other gentlemen, with a number of i/f^^^^ ^^
^'Jean d'Enghien, Comte d'Enghien, Comte de Soissons, brother of
Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre and of Louis de Bourbon, Prince
de Cond^, killed at the battle of Saint Quentin, August 10, 1557.
^'Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Cond^, chief in rank of the Huguenot
leaders, brother of the King of Navarre. Killed at the battle of Jamac,
1569. He married Eleanor de Roye, whose mother was a half-sister of
Coligny.
"Louis de Bourbon, Due du Montpensier, brother of Charles, Prince
de la Roche-sur-Yon.
*Charles de Bourbon, Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, second son of Jean
II of Bourbon and Isabelle de Beauyau, was made lieutenant-general of
the armies of the King on August 14, 1557, governor of Dauphigne in
1563. He died October 10, 1565. He married the widow of Park's first
great friend, the Marshal Ren6 de Montejan, by whom he had three
children. In 1564 the King sent Par6 to Biarritz to attend him.
^'Jacques de Savoy, Due de Nemours was the hero of a famous scandal
a few years later. Fran^oise de Rohan, daughter of Rene de Rohan and
Isabelle d'Albret, accused him of seducing her under promise of marriage.
He deserted her and married Anne d'Este, the widow of Francois of
Lorraine. Mademoiselle de Rohan gave birth to a son. She brought suit
against the Due de Nemours and Pare was called as one of the witnesses.
He testified that he had known her for ten or twelve years. One morning
he was sent to bleed her at the palace of the Louvre where she lived; but
when he arrived he was met by Salon, first physician to Catherine de
Medici, who forbade him to bleed her although he would give no reason
for not allowing him to do so. Pare learned later that it was because
she was pregnant by the Due de Nemours. Mademoiselle de Rohan
lost her suit. So long as the Due de Nemours lived she refused to marry,
193
194 AMBROISE PARE
old captains and soldiers, who often made sallies on the
enemy (as we shall tell hereafter) which was not with-
out many slain as well on one part as the other. Almost
all our wounded men died, and it was thought the drugs
wherewith they were dressed were poisoned. Where-
fore Monsieur de Guise and Messieurs les Princes, went
so far as to demand of the King that if it were possible,
he would send me to them with drugs, for they believed
that theirs were poisoned, seeing that of their wounded
few escaped. I do not believe that there was any poi-
son: but that the great strokes of the cutlasses and
arquebuses and the extreme cold were the cause of it.
The King wrote to the Mareschal Saint Andre, who
was his lieutenant at Verdun, that he should find means
to make me enter Metz, whatever way it was. Monsieur
le Mareschal Saint Andre and Monsieur le Mareschal
de Vielleville'^'^ found an Italian captain who promised
them to get me in there, which he did, and for it had
fifteen hundred crowns. The King having heard the
promise which the Italian captain had made, sent for
me and commanded me to take from his apothecary,
Commission named Daigne, so many and such drugs as I should
y jjl^ deem necessary for the besieged wounded, which I did,
as much as a post horse could carry. The King gave
considering herself his legitimate wife. At his death in 1586, she espoused
Francois le Felle, Seigneur de Guebriant. She died in December, 1591.
"Francois de Seipieaux, Seigneur de VieTleville et de Duretal, was made
marshal of France in 1562. He died November 30, 1571.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 195
me charge to talk to Monsieur de Guise and to the
princes and captains who were in Metz.
Being arrived at Verdun some days after, Monsieur
le Mareschal de Saint Andre got horses for me and my
man, and for the Itahan captain, who spoke very good
German, Spanish, and Walloon, with his natural
tongue. When we were within eight or ten leagues of
Metz, we went only by night, where, being near the
camp, I saw more than a league and a half of fires
lighted around the city, seeming as if the whole earth
had been on fire, and I was of advice that we could
never pass through those fires without being discov-
ered, and, by consequence, hung and strangled, or cut
in pieces, or be obliged to pay a great ransom. To say
the truth I had well and gladly wished to be again in
Paris, for the great danger that I foresaw. God con-
ducted our affair so well that we entered into the city
at midnight, by means of a certain signal which the
captain had with another captain of the company of
Monsieur de Guise, which Lord I found in his bed, who
received me with good grace, being very glad of my
coming. I did my mission of all that which the King
had commanded me to say to him. I told him that I
had a little letter to give him, and that the next day I
would not fail to deliver it to him. That done he com-
manded that they should give me quarters, and that I
should be well used, and told me I should not fail the
196 AMBROISE PARE
next day to be upon the breach, where I would find all
the princes and lords, and many captains. Which I
did, and they received me with great joy, doing me the
honor of embracing me, and saying to me that I was
welcome, adding that they had no more fear of dying,
if it should happen that they should be wounded.
Monsieur le Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon was the
first that feasted me, and asked what they said at court
of the city of Metz. I told him all that I was willing.
Then presently he prayed me to go see one of his gen-
tlemen, named Monsieur de Magnane, now chevalier of
the order of the king, and lieutenant of His Majesty's
guards, who had his leg broken by a cannon-shot. I
found him in bed, his leg bent and crooked, without any
dressing on it, because a gentleman promised to cure
him, having his name and his girdle with certain words
History on it, and the poor gentleman wept and cried of the pain
which he felt, sleeping neither day or night for four days
past. Then I mocked much at this imposture and false
promise. Quickly I set and dressed so skilfully his
leg, that he was without pain and slept all the night,
and since, thanks be to God, was cured, and is yet
at this present living, serving the King. The said
Seigneur de la Roche-sur-Yon sent me a cask of wine
to my lodging larger than a pipe of Anjou, and told me
when it was drunk he would send me another. That
was how he treated me, making me all good cheer. This
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 197
done Monsieur de Guise gave me a list of certain Cap-
tains and seigneurs, and commanded me to tell them
that which the King had given me in charge, which I
did; which was to make his commendation and thanks
for the duty which they had done and were doing in
guarding his town of Metz, and that he would recog-
nize it. I was more than eight days in acquitting my
charge, because they were many. First to all the
princes and others, as the Duke Horace,''^ the Comte de
Martigues,^® and his brother Monsieur de Bauge,*^^ the
Seigneurs de Montmorenci, and d'Anville, now Marshal
of France, Monsieur de la Chapelle aux Ursins,^^ Bon-
nivet, Carouge, now governor of Rouen, the Vidame de
Chartres,^^ the Comte de Lude, Monsieur de Biron, now
**Horace Farnese, Due de Castro, married Diane d'Angouleme, a
natural daughter of Henri II.
*°Charies de Luxembourg, Viscomte de Martigues, son of Francois II
of Luxembourg and Charlotte de Brosse. He was mortally wounded at
the siege of Hesdln in 1553, and Pare, who attended him, tells the story
of his last days in his account of that expedition, vide infra.
*°Monsieur de Bauge was made a prisoner at Theroiienne and Par6
tells more of him in his narrative of the journey to Hesdin.
"Christophe des Ursins, Seigneur de la Chapelle-Gautier, de Done et
d'Armenonville, Marquis de Traisnel, governor of Paris, and lieutenant-
general of the He de France. He was the oldest of six children of
Francois Jouvenal des Ursins and of Anne I'Orfevre, Dame de Armenon-
ville. He married Madeline de Luxembourg in 1557. In 1580 he fell
from his horse and injured himself most seriously. Par6 attended him
along with many other surgeons. When he recovered he wished to know
why he had not been given any mummy during his illness, and also asked
Pare his opinion of the value of unicorn's horn. These questions induced
Par6 to write his famous discourse on those two substances in which he
clearly proved their uselessness as medicines. Christophe des Ursins died
in 1588.
"Francois de Vendome, son of Louis de Vendome, was the Vidame
de Chartres. Diane de Poitiers wished to marry her second daughter to
him. He refused the match, thereby winning the favor of Catherine de
Medici, of whom Diane was the liated rival. Catherine and he conspired
198
AMBROISE PARE
Wound of
Monsieur
de Pienne
Monsieur
de Pienne
trepanned
and cured
marshal of France, Monsieur de Randan, la Rochefou-
cault, Bordaille, d'Estres, the younger. Monsieur de
Saint Jean en Dauphine, and many others who it would
be too long to recite, and even to many captains who
had all done their duty well in defence of their lives and
of the town. Afterwards, I asked Monsieur de Guise
what it pleased him I should do with the drugs that I
had brought. He told me that I should part them
among the surgeons and apothecaries, and especially to
the poor wounded soldiers who were in great number
at the Hotel Dieu, which I did and can assure you that
I could not so much as go and see the wounded, who
sent for me to visit and dress them. All the besieged
lords besought me to care most solicitously above all the
rest for Monsieur de Pienne, who had been wounded
when on the breach by a fragment of stone shot from a
cannon, on the temple with fracture and depression of
the bone. They told me that suddenly as he received the
blow, he fell to the ground as dead, and cast blood out
of his mouth, nose and ears, with great vomiting, and
was fourteen days without being able to speak or rea-
son, also there came upon him tremors almost like
spasms, and all his face was swollen and very livid. He
was trepanned at the side of the temporal muscle, on the
frontal bone, I dressed him, with other surgeons, and
after Henri's death against the Guises. The latter forced Catherine her-
self to order his commitment to the Bastille. He died a few months later
on the very day of his release from prison.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 199
God cured him, and to-day he is still living, thank God.
The Emperor caused battery to be made with forty
double cannons, where the powder was spared neither
by day or night. Presently when Monsieur de Guise
saw the artillery seated and pointed to make a breach,
he made the nearest houses to be pulled down to make
ramparts, and the posts and beams were put end to end,
and between them fascines of earth, beds, and bundles
of wool, then they put again upon them other beams
and joists. Now, much of the wood of the houses of the
suburbs, which had been thrown to the ground, (for
fear the enemy should lodge themselves there in cover,
and that they should not avail themselves of the wood)
served very well to repair the breach. Everybody was
busy carrying earth day and night to repair the breach.
Messieurs the princes, seigneurs, captains, lieutenants,
ensigns, were all carrying the baskets to give example
to the soldiers and citizens to do the like, which they did,
yea, even to the ladies and gentlewomen, and those who
had not baskets, made use of caldrons, panniers, sacks,
sheets, and all else which they could to carry the earth;
in such sort that the enemy had no sooner beaten down
the wall, but he found behind it a stronger rampart.
The wall being fallen, our soldiers cried to those out-
side, "Fox, fox, fox" and they called a thousand insults
to one another. Monsieur de Guise forbade under pain
of death, that any man should talk to those outside.
The Breach
200 AMBROISE PARE
for fear that there should be some traitor who would
give them advertisement of that which was being done
in the city. This prohibition made, they attached live
cats to the ends of their pikes, and put them on the
walls, and cried with the cats, "Miaut, miaut, miaut."
Truly the Imperialists were much enraged, having been
so long a time making a breach, at so great expense,
which was four-score paces in width, that fifty men in a
front could enter, where they found a rampart stronger
than the wall. They threw themselves on the poor cats,
and shot at them with arquebuses, as they shoot at a
popinjay. Our men often made sorties, by command
of Monsieur de Guise. The day before there was a
great press to enroll themselves among those who should
go forth, and principally the young noblemen, led by
veteran captains, in so much that it was a great favor
to permit them to sally forth and run upon the enemy.
And they would sally forth always to the number of
one hundred or six score, well armed with bucklers,
cutlasses, arquebuses, and pistols, pikes, partisans, and
halberds ; who went even to the trenches to awaken them
by surprise. Then an alarm would be given through all
their camp and their drums would sound, plan, plan, ta
ti ta, ta ta ti ta, ton touf touf. Likewise their trum-
pets and clarions roared and sounded, houtte selle,
boute selle, houtte selle, monte a cheval, nionte a cheval,
houte selle, monte a cheval, a cheval, and all their sol-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 201
diers would cry "Arm, arm, arm, to arms, to arms, to
arms, arm, to arms, arm, to arms, arm:" as they cry after
wolves, and in all divers languages, according to their
nations, and one saw them going forth from their tents
and little lodgings, as thick as ants when one uncovers
their ant hills to succor their companions, who had their
throats cut like sheep. The cavalry, likewise came from
all sides at a great gallop, patati, imtata, patati, patata,
pa, ta, ta, patata, pata, ta, and eager to be in the mele,
where the strokes were falling, to give and receive them.
And when ours saw themselves pressed, they returned
to the town, always fighting, and those who pursued
them were repulsed by the artillery, which they had
charged with stones and great pieces of iron, square and
three-sided, and our soldiers who were on the wall, would
fire a volley, and rain their bullets on them thick as hail,
to send them back to bed, but many remained on the
fields of combat, and our men also did not all return
with whole skins, and there remained behind always
some for the tax, which were joyful to die on the bed
of honor. And then if there was a horse wounded he
was skinned and eaten by the soldiers, instead of beef
and bacon, and it was for me to run to dress our
wounded. Some days afterwards they made other sor-
ties, which greatly vexed the enemy, that we would not
let them sleep a little in surety. Monsieur de Guise
made a stratagem or ruse of war, which was he sent a
202 AMBROISE PARE
peasant, who was none of the wisest, with two pairs of
letters to the King, to whom he gave ten ecus and
promised that the King would give him one hundred,
provided that he delivered the letters to him. In one
of them he told him that the enemy made no sign of
retiring, and with all his forces had made a great breach,
which he hoped to defend even to the loss of his life and
that of those who were within, and that if the enemy
had so well placed their artillery in a certain place which
he designated, with great difficulty could he have kept
them from entering in, seeing that it was the weakest
place in all the city, but very soon he hoped to repair it
in such sort that they could not enter. One of these
letters was sewed in the lining of his doublet, and he was
told that he should guard against speaking of it to any-
one. And another was given to him in which Monsieur
de Guise told the King that he and all the besieged
hoped to guard the town well, and other things which I
leave here unsaid. He made the peasant go forth in the
night, and he was taken by a sentinel, and brought to
the Duke of Alva, to learn what they did in the town,
and he was asked if he had letters: He said "y^s," and
gave them one; and they having seen it asked him on
oath if he had not another, he said he had not. Then he
was searched, and the one was found which was sewed in
his doublet, and the poor messenger was hung and
strangled.
The letters
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 203
The said letters were conununicated to the Emperor,
who called his Council, where it was resolved, since they
had not been able to do anything at the first breach, that
quickly the artillery should be brought to the place communi
which they thought the weakest, where they made great ^'^^'p^J.^J'"'
efforts to make another breach, and sapped and mined and his
the wall, and sought to surprise la Tour d'Enfer, yet
they durst not come to the assault.
The Duke of Alva represented to the Emperor that
every day his soldiers were dying, even to the number of
more than two hundred, and that there was little hope
of entering the town, seeing the weather and the great
number of soldiers who were in it. The Emperor de-
manded what men they were who were dying, and if R^mon-
strance of
they were gentlemen and men of mark. He was an- the Duke of
swered that they were all poor soldiers. Then he said ^^^^J^'
it was no matter if they did die, comparing them to cat-
erpillars, gi-ass-hoppers, and cockchafers, w^hich eat the
buds and other good things of the earth, and that if
they were men of worth they would not be in his camp
for six livres a month, and therefore there was no harm
if they died. Moreover, he said he would never go forth
from before that town, till he had taken it by force or
by famine, although he should lose all his army ; because
of the gi-eat number of princes who were enclosed there,
with the greatest part of the nobility of France, whom he
hoped would pay his expenses four times over, and he
204 AMBROISE PARE
would go yet once more to Paris, to visit the Parisians,
and to make himself King of all the kingdom of France.
Monsieur de Guise, with the princes, captains, and
soldiers, and in general all the citizens of the town, hav-
ing heard the intention of the Emperor, which was to
exterminate us all, then it was not permitted to the sol-
diers, and citizens, and even to the princes and sei-
gneurs, to eat fresh fish, or venizen, likewise no part-
ridges, woodcocks, larks, plovers, divers and other game,
for fear that they had acquired some pestilent air, which
might give us a contagion. So they had to content them-
selves with the munition (army) fare, to wit, biscuit,
beef, salted cows, bacon, sausage, Mayence hams: like-
wise fish, as molluscs, haddock, salmon, shad, tunny,
whale, anchovy, sardines, herrings, also peas, beans, rice,
garlic, onions, prunes, cheeses, butter, oil and salt ; pep-
per, ginger, nutmeg, and other spices, to put into our
confections, mostly of horses, which without them would
have had a very bad taste. Many citizens having gar-
dens in the town had planted them with great radishes,
turnips, carrots, and leeks, which they guarded well and
dearly for the extreme necessity of hunger. But all
these supplies were distributed by weight, measure, and
justice, according to the quality of the persons, because
we knew not how long the siege would last. But having
heard from the mouth of the Emperor that he would
never part from before Metz until he had taken it by
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 205
force or by famine, then the victuals were retrenched, in
such sort that what had been distributed for three sol-
diers, was given to four, and it was forbidden to them
to sell what remained of their repast, but it was per-
mitted to give it to the camp followers. And they rose
always from table with an appetite for fear they should
be subject to take medicine. And before rendering our-
selves to the mercy of the enemy, we had determined
rather to eat the asses, mules, and horses, dogs and cats,
and rats, even to our boots, and collars and other leath-
ers which we could have softened and fricasseed. In
general all the besieged were determined to valorously
defend themselves with all the instruments of war; to
wit, to point, and charge the artillery (at the point of
the breach) with bullets, stones, cart-nails, bars and
chains of iron; also all sorts and kinds of artifices of
fire, as boettes, barricades, grenades, pots, lances,
torches, and fusees, circles surrounded by caltrops, burn-
ing faggots : boiling water, melted lead, and quick lime
to put out their eyes. Also they had made holes through
the houses from one side to the other, to lodge arque-
busiers, to fight them on the flank, and hasten their
going, or make them remain there forever. Likewise
they had commissioned the women to pull up the streets,
and to throw at them from their windows loaves of St.
Stephen (stones), billets, tables, trestles, benches and
stools, which would dash out their brains. Moreover,
2o6 AMBROISE PARE
there was a little more in advance a great guardhouse
filled with carts and palisades^ casks and barrels, and
barricades of earth to serve as gabions, interlaid with
falconnets and falcons, field-pieces, arquebuses with a
rest,^^ arquebuses, and pistols, and artifices of fire, whieh
would break their legs and thighs, in such manner that
they would be attacked at the head, in the flank, and in
the rear; and had they forced this guardhouse, were yet
others at the crossings of the streets, at every hundred
paces, which would have been as bad boys [mauvais
gar^ons] as the first, or worse, and would have made
many widows and orphans, and if fortune had been so
much against us, that they had stormed and broken
our guardhouses, there would yet have been seven great
battalions drawn up in square and in triangle, to fight
all together, each one accompanied by a prince to give
them boldness to fight better and die all together, even
to the last breath of their souls. Moreover, they had
all resolved that each would carry, his treasure, rings
and jewels and his best, richest, and most beautiful fur-
niture, and bum them in the great square, and put them
in ashes for fear the enemy should prevail and make
trophies of them. Likewise there were men who were
charged to set fire to and burn all the munitions also
to break in the vessels of wine in the cellars, others were
•^The arquebus A croc was one which had a crutch on which it was
rested when being fired.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 207
to set fire to each house to burn our enemies and us
together. The citizens had accorded all this, rather
than see the bloody knife at their throats, and their
wives and daughters ravished and taken by force by
the cruel and inlmman Spaniards.
Now we had certain prisoners that Monsieur de
Guise sent away on their parole, who, tacitly we had
wished, would conceive our final resolution and despera-
tion, who being arrived in their camp, lost no time in
announcing it, which was the cause of restraining the
great impetuosity and desire of the soldiers, so that they
no more wished to enter into the town to cut our throats,
and enrich themselves by our pillage. The Emperor,
having heard the resolution of this great warrior Mon-
sieur de Guise, put water in his wine, and restrained his The soldier
great anger, saying that he could not enter the town °"^^ soes
to war for
without making a great butchery and carnage, and shed- pillage
ding much blood, both of the defendants and of their
assailants, and they would be all dead together, and in
the end he would not have got anything but ashes, and
that afterwards men would say that this was a like
destruction to that of the city of Jerusalem, made in
former times by Titus and Vespasion.
The Emperor thus having heard our last resolve,
and seeing how little he had advanced by his battery,
saps and mines, and the great plague which was in all
his camp, and the inclemency of the weather, and the
2o8 AMBROISE PARE
lack of victuals and money, and how his soldiers were
disbanding themselves and going away in great troops,
decided at last to retire, accompanied by the cavalry of
his advance guard, with the greater part of the artillery
and the battalia (engines of war.) The Marquis of
Brandenbourg was the last who decamped, sustained by
some bands of Spaniards and Bohemians, and his com-
panies of Germans, and he remained there for a day
and a half, to the great regret of Monsieur de Guise,
who sent forth from the town four pieces of artillery,
which he made fire on him at random to hasten his
going; which he did soon enough with all his troops.
Being a quarter of a league from Metz, he was taken
with fright, fearing that our cavalry would fall on his
rear, which caused him to set fire to his munition pow-
der, and abandon some pieces of artillery, and much
baggage, which he could not take with him, because the
advance guard, the battalia and the gi'eat cannon, had
broken and torn up the roads. Our cavalry wished
with all their force to go forth from the town to attack
him in the rear, but Monsieur de Guise would never
permit it, but on the contrary said, that we should
rather smooth the roads, for them, and make bridges
of gold and silver to let them go, like a good pastor and
shepherd who did not wish to lose a single one of his
flock.
That is how our dear and well-beloved Imperials
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 209
went away from before Metz, which was the day after
Christmas, to the great contentment of the besieged,
and the praise of the princes and seigneurs, captains,
and soldiers, who had endured the travail of this siege
for the space of two months. Notwithstanding they did
not all go, there lacked more than twenty-thousand who
had died, as well by artillery and the sword, as by the
plague, cold and hunger (and from spite and great rage
that they could not get into the town to cut our throats
and have the pillage of it), and there also died a great
number of their horses, of which they had eaten the
greater part in place of beef and bacon. We went where
they had camped, where we found many dead bodies not
yet buried, and the earth all dug up as we see in the
Cemetery of the Holy Innocents during some great
mortality. In their tents, pavilions, and lodgings, they
had hkewise left many sick; also bullets, arms, carts,
wagons, and other baggage, with a great quantity of
munition bread, spoiled and rotted by the snows and
rains; yet the soldiers had it only by weight and meas-
ure. And likewise they left great provision of wood, the
remains of houses which they had demolished and thrown
down in the villages for two or three leagues about;
likewise many other pleasure-houses [villas] belonging
to citizens, with gardens and fine orchards, filled with
divers fruit trees, as without this they would all have
210 AMBROISE PARE
been numbed and dead of the cold, and would have been
compelled to raise the siege sooner.
The said Monsieur de Guise caused the dead to be
buried and the sick to be cared for. Likewise the enemy
left in the Abbey of Saint Arnold many of their
wounded soldiers, whom they had no means of taking
away. JNIonsieur de Guise sent them all a sufficiency
of food, and commanded me and other surgeons to go
and dress and treat them, which we did with a good will,
and I believe that they would not have done the like for
ours, because the Spaniard is very cruel, perfidious, and
inhuman, and therefore the enemy of all nations, which
is proved by Lopez the Spaniard, and Benzo the Milan-
ese, and others who have written the history of America
and the West Indies, who have had to confess that
the cruelty, avarice, blasphemy, and wickedness of the
Spaniards, have altogether alienated the poor Indians
from the religion that the said Spaniards are said to
hold. And all write they are worth less than the idol-
atrous Indians, for their cruel treatment of the said
Indians. And after some days, we sent a trumpet to
Thionville, to the enemy, that they should send for
their wounded in safety, which they did with carts
and wagons, but not enough. Monsieur de Guise gave
them carts and carters to help bring them to Thion-
ville. Our carters having returned, told us that the
roads were all paved with dead bodies, and they never
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 211
brought back the half, because they died in the carts,
and the Spaniards seeing them at the point of death,
before they had cast forth their last breath, threw them
out of the carts, and buried them in the mud and mire,
saying that they had no order to bring back the dead.
Moreover our carters said they had found by the roads
many carts stuck in the mud, laden with baggage, which
the enemy had not dared to send for, fearing that those
in Metz would run upon them.
I will again return to the cause of their mortality,
which was principally from hunger, plague and cold;
because the snow was on the gi'ound to the height of Causes of
more than two feet, and they were lodged in caves under ^J^^ Mortal-
ity of the
the earth covered only with a little thatch. Neverthe- Imperial-
less each soldier had his camp-bed and a coverlet all **^**
sewn with stars, glittering and brilliant, brighter than
fine gold, and every day they had white sheets, and
lodged at the sign of the Moon, and made good cheer
when they had the wherewithal, and paid their host so
well overnight, that in the morning they went away
quits, shaking their ears, and they needed no comb to
detach the down and the feathers from their beards and
hair, and they found always a white tablecloth, losing
good meals for want of victuals. Also the greater part
had neither boots, nor half-boots, slippers, hose nor
shoes, and many would rather have none than have
them, because they were always in the mud up to the
212
AMBROISE PARE
mid-leg, and because they went barefoot, we called
them the Emperor's Apostles.
After the camp was entirely broken up, I distrib-
uted my sick in the hands of the surgeons in the town,
to finish dressing them ; then I took leave of Monsieur
de Guise and returned to the King, who received me
with a good countenance, and asked of me how I had
been able to enter the city of Metz. I told him en-
tirely all that I had done. He gave me two-hundred
ecus, and one hundred that I had at setting out, and
said he would never leave me poor. Then I thanked
him very humbly for the good and the honor that he
was pleased to do me.
The Tree Which Bears the Incense.
(Par(^, Edition 1585.)
The Journey to Hesdin, 1553
HE Emperor Charles besieged the city
of Theroiienne, where Monsieur le Due
de Savoie ^* was general of the whole
army. It was taken by assault, where
there were a great number of our men killed and made
prisoners. The King wishing to prevent the enemy
from besieging the city and chateau of Hesdin, sent
Messieurs the Due de Bouillon, the Due Horace, the
Marquis de Villars, and a number of captains, and
about eighteen hundred soldiers, and during the siege
of Theroiienne, these seigneurs fortified the chateau of
Hesdin, in such sort that it seemed to be impregnable.
The King sent me to these seigneurs to aid them with
my art, if peradventure they should have need of it.
Now soon after the taking of Theroiienne, we were
besieged with the army. There was a quick, clear,
spring within cannonshot, where there were about four
score or a hundred camp followers and wenches of the
enemy who were about the spring to draw water. I was
on a rampart watching them place the camp, and seeing
this crowd of idlers about the fountain, I prayed
"Emmanuel Philibert, called "Tete de Fer" (Iron head) was born in
1528. He was a great soldier. In 1557, he commanded the victorious
troops at the battle of Saint-Quentin. In 1559, he married Marguerite de
France, daughter of Francois I, and retired from active life. He died
in 1580.
213
214 AMBROISE PARE
Monsieur du Pont, commissary of artillery, to fire a
cannonshot at this rabble. He made me a flat refusal,
remonstrating with me that all this kind of people were
not worth the powder that one would spend on them.
Again I begged him to point the cannon, telling him
"The more dead, the fewer enemies," which he did at my
request, and by this shot were killed fifteen or sixteen
of them, and many wounded. Our soldiers sallied forth
on the enemy before their trenches were made where
there would be many killed and wounded by arquebus
shots and by the sword as many on one side as on the
other, where I had much work cut out for me of such
sort that I had no rest neither day nor night for dress-
ing the wounded.
And I would tell this in passing, that we had put
many of them in a great tower, laid on a little straw;
and their pillows were stones, their coverlets were their
cloaks of those that had them. When the artillery was
active, as often as the cannon fired, the wounded said
they felt pain in their wounds, as if one had given them
blows with a stick, the one cried his head, the other his
arm, and so with the other parts, and with many their
wounds bled afresh, even in greater quantity than at
the time they were first wounded, and then it was I must
run to staunch them. Mon petit maistre, if you had
been there, you would have been much hindered with
your hot irons. You would have had need of much char-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 215
coal to redden them, and I believe they would have killed
you like a calf for your cruelty. Now by this devilish
tempest of the echo of these cannon engines, and the
great and vehement agitation of the collision of the air,
resounding in the wounds of the injured, many died;
and others, because they could not rest by reason of the
clamors and cries which were made day and night, and
also for lack of good food, and other things necessary
for the wounded. Now, mon petit maistre, if you had
been there you could have ordered them jellys, restora-
tives, gravies, pressed meat, broth, barley water, al-
monds, blanc-mange, prunes, damsons, and other
viands proper for the sick, but your ordinance would
only have been accomplished on paper, for in effect there
was nothing to have but the flesh of old tainted cows
which were taken around Hesdin for our munition,
salted and half-cooked, in such sort that he who would
eat it, must tear it with the strength of his teeth, as birds
of prey do their food.
I would not forget the rags with which they were
dressed, which were only rewashed every day and dried
at the fire, and therefore were as hard as parchment. I
leave you to think how their wounds could do well.
There were four big, fat prostitutes to whom was given
charge of the washing of the linen, who acquitted them-
selves of it to the strokes of a stick, and likewise they had
no water at their command, and less soap. That is how
2i6 AMBROISE PARE
the poor sick died for lack of food and other necessary
things.
One day our enemies feigned to give us a general
assault to draw our soldiers on the breach, to the end
that they might reconnoitre our strength. Everybody
ran there. We had made great provision of artifices of
fire to defend the breach. A priest of Monsieur le Due
de Bouillon took a grenade, thinking to throw it on the
enemy, and put fire to it sooner than he should. It ex-
ploded and set fire to our artifices which were in a house
near the breach; which was a marvellous disaster to us
because it burned many poor soldiers ; it even caught the
house, and we had all been burned, had it not been for
succor which put it out. There was only one well with
any water in it in our chateau, which was nearly all
dried up, and instead of water they took beer to extin-
guish it. Thereafter, there was a great dearth of water
and to drink that which was left, it was necessary to
strain it through napkins.
Now the enemy seeing the explosion and the tempest
of the artifices, which made a marvellous flame and
thundering, thought that we had put the fire on purpose
for the defense of the breach, to burn them and that we
had many others. This made them change their mind
to have us some other way than by assault. They made
mines and sapped the greater part of our walls ; so much
so that it would throw down entirely our chateau upside
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 217
down ; and when the sappers had finished their task, and
their artillery was fired, all our chateau shook under us,
as an earthquake, which amazed us much. Moreover,
they had directed five pieces of artillery which they had
placed on a little hill to play on our backs, when we went
to defend the breach.
Due Horace had a cannon-shot on the shoulder /^^^
which carried away the arm one side, the body to the Horace
other, without his being able to speak a single word. His
death was a great disaster to us, because of the rank
which he held in this place. Likewise Monsieur de Mar-
tigues had a bulletshot which pierced his lungs. I
dressed him as I shall tell hereafter. ^^ ^/o;..
Then we demanded a parley, and a trumpet was ^^9^^^
wounded
sent to the Prince of Piedmont to know what terms it
would please him to give us. His answer was that all
the chiefs, as gentlemen, captains, lieutenants, and en-
signs, should be held for ransom, and the soldiers should
go forth without their arms, and that if they refused
this fair and honest offer the next day we could be
assured they would take us by assault or otherwise.
A council was held where I was summoned, as many
captains, gentlemen, and others, to know if I would
sign that the place should be surrendered. I an-
swered that it was not tenable, and I would sign with
my own blood, for the little hope I had that we could
resist the forces of the enemy, and also for the great
2i8 AMBROISE PARE
longing I had to be out of this hell and great torment,
for I slept neither day or night for the great quantity
of wounded, which might be in number about two hun-
dred. The dead yielded a great putrefaction, being
heaped up on one another like faggots, not being cov-
ered with earth because we had none; and if I entered
into a lodging, there were soldiers awaiting me at the
door when I went forth, for me to dress others ; it was
which should have me, and they carried me like a holy
body, not touching foot to earth in spite of one another,
and I could not satisfy so great a number of wounded,
joined to which I had not that which was necessary to
treat them. For it is not enough that the surgeon should
do his duty towards his patients, but the patient must
also do his, and the assistance and external things. See
Hippocrates, "The First Aphorism."
Now having heard the resolution for the surrender
of the place, I knew that our affair did not go well, and
for fear of being known I gave a velvet coat, a satin
doublet, a cloak of fine cloth lined with velvet to a sol-
dier, who gave me a sorry doublet all torn and frayed
with use, and a collar of leather well worn, and a miser-
able hat, and a short cloak. I smeared the neck of my
shirt with water with which I had mixed a little soot.
Likewise I rubbed my hose with a stone at the knees
and above the heels as if they had been worn a long
time. I did as much to my shoes, in such sort that I had
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 219
sooner been taken for a chimney sweep than for a sur-
geon to the King. I went in this guise to Monsieur de
Martigues and I prayed him that he would arrange it so
that I should remain with him to dress him, which he
accorded willingly, and had as much wish that I should
remain with him as I had myself.
Soon after the commissioners who had charge of
selecting the prisoners entered the chateau, the seven-
teenth day of July, 1553, where they took Messieurs le
Due de Bouillon, le Marquis de Villars, de Roye, le
Baron de Culan, Monsieur du Pont, the commissary
of the artillery, and Monsieur de Martigues; and me
with him (because of the prayer which he made them to
do it) ; and all the gentlemen whom they knew were able
to pay any ransom, and the greater part of the soldiers
and chiefs of companies, having so many and such pris-
oners as they wished. Afterwards the Spanish soldiers
entered by the breach without any resistance, our men
thinking that they would hold their faith and agree-
ment, that they should have their lives saved. They en-
tered in a great fury to kill all, to plunder, and to sack.
They retained some men, hoping to have ransom for
them ; they tied them by their genitalia with their arque-
bus cords, which were thrown over a pike that two held
on their shoulders, then they would pull the cord, with
great violence and derision, as if they had wished to
sound a chime, telling them that they must put them-
220 AMBROISE PARE
selves to ransom, and to tell of what houses (family)
they were, and if they saw they would have no profit
from them, they killed them cruelly in their hands, or
soon after their genitalia would have fallen into a gan-
grene and total mortification. But they killed them all
with their daggers and cut their throats. See then their
great cruelty and perfidy; let him trust them that will.
Now to return to my discourse. Being led from the
chateau into the city with Monsieur de Martigues, there
was a gentleman of Monsieur de Savoi who asked me if
the wound of Monsieur de Martigues could be cured;
I told him no, that it was incurable. He promptly went
away to tell it to Monseigneur le Due de Savoi. Now I
thought that he would send physicians and surgeons
to visit and dress Monsieur de Martigues. Meanwhile I
discussed with myself if I should play the simpleton,
and not let myself be known as a surgeon, for fear that
they should keep me to dress their wounded, and that in
the end I should be known to be surgeon to the King
and they would make me pay a large ransom. On the
other side I feared that if I did not show myself to be a
surgeon, and to have well dressed Monsieur de Mar-
tigues, they would cut my throat. Forthwith I resolved
to show them that he would not die for want of having
been well dressed and succoured. Soon after, behold,
there came many gentlemen, accompanied by a physi-
cian and a surgeon of the Emperor, and those of the
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 221
said Seigneur de Savoi, with six other surgeons of the
army, to see the wound of the said Monsieur de Mar-
tigues, and to know of me how I had dressed and treated
him. The Emperor's physician bade me declare the
essential nature of the wound and how I had treated it.
Now all the spectators had a very attentive ear to know
if the wound was mortal or not.
I commenced to discourse to them, how Monsieur de
Martigues looking over the wall, to reconnoitre those
who were sapping it, received a shot from an arquebus
though the body, where presently I was called to dress
him. I saw that he cast out blood by his mouth and
his wound ; moreover he had great difficulty on inspira-
tion and expiration, and cast wind by the said wounds
with a whistling, insomuch that it would blow out a
candle, and he said he had a very great stabbing pain at
the entrance of the bullet. I thought and believed that
this could be some splinters of bone which pricked the
lungs when they made their systole and diastole. I
put my finger within where I found the entrance of the
ball had broken the fourth rib in the middle, and splin-
ters of bone which the said ball had forced in, and the
going forth of it had likewise broken the fifth rib with
splinters of bone which had been driven from within,
outwards. I drew out some but not all because they
were very deep and adherent. I put in each wound a
tent, having the head large enough, attached by a
222 AMBROISE PARE
thread, for fear that by the inspiration they should be
drawn into the cavity of the thorax, which has been
known by experience to the detriment of the poor
wounded, because having fallen within, one cannot with-
draw them, which is the reason that they engender pu-
trefaction, as a thing contrary to nature. The said
tents were anointed with a medicament made of the
yellow of eggs and Venice turpentine, with a little oil of
roses. My intention in putting in the said tents was to
arrest the blood and to guard against the exterior air
entering the chest, which had been able to chill the lungs
and by consequence the heart. The said tents were put
there also so that they would give issue to the blood
diffused in the thorax. I put on the wounds a large
plaster of diachylon ^^ in which I had mixed oil of roses
and vinegar, for the purpose of avoiding inflammation,
and then I applied large compresses soaked in 6xy-
crate^^ and bandaged him, but not too hard, so that he
could breathe easily. That done I drew from him five
porringers of blood, from the basilic vein of the right
arm, so as to make revulsion of the blood, which ran
from his wounds into his thorax, having first taken indi-
cation from the wounded parts, and chiefly, his qualities
^'Diachylon plaster was the invention of Menecrates, who was physi-
cian to the Emperor Tiberius. It was described by Galen. This plaster
was a mucilaginous mass made chiefly from mucilaginous seeds and roots,
such as marshmallow and linseed. The term was applied to mucilaginous
plasters in general down to very recent times.
^"Oxycrate was a mixture of which the chief ingredients were vinegar
and saffron.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 223
considering his youth and his sanguine temperament.
Soon after he went to stool, and by his urine and stool
evacuated a great quantity of blood. And as to the
pain, which he said he felt at the entrance of the bullet,
as if he had been pricked with a bodkin, that was be-
cause the lungs, by their movements, beat against the
splinters of the broken rib. But the lungs are covered
with a tunic coming from the pleural membrane, having
issue with the nerves of the sixth conjugation from the
brain which was the cause of the pain which he felt.
Likewise he had great difficulty in inspiring and ex-
piring, which came from the blood diffused in the cavity
of the thorax, and on the diaphragm, the chief agent in
respiration, and from the laceration of the muscles which
are between each rib, which aid also in inspiration and
expiration; and likewise because the lungs were
wounded, and torn, and lacerated by the ball, which
had caused him to spit black and putrid blood in cough-
ing.
Fever seized him soon after he was wounded, with
weakness of the heart. The said fever seemed to me '^ j ^,
wound of
to come from the putrid vapors arising from the blood the lungs
which was outside its vessels, which had flowed and will
flow more. The wound of the lungs has grown larger
and will grow larger [yet], because it is in perpetual
movement both in sleeping and waking, and expands
and compresses itself to attract the air to the heart and
224 AMBROISE PARE
throw the fuliginous vapors out. By the unnatural heat
is made inflammation ; then the expulsive quality forces
out by cough that which is obnoxious to it. But the
lungs themselves cannot purge but by coughing, and in
coughing the wound is enlarged, and grows yet more,
from which the blood goes forth in greater abundance,
which blood is drawn from the heart by the arterial
vein," to give them (the lungs) their nourishment, and
to the heart by the vena cava. His food was barley broth,
prunes with sugar, at other times bread soup ; his drink
was a ptisan. He could lie only on his back, which
showed that he had a great quantity of blood diffused
in his thorax, which spreading itself along the vertebrse
did not compress the lungs as much as it would lying
on his sides or seated. What more shall I say, but that
my said Seigneur de Martigues never had a single
hour's rest after he was wounded, and always evacuated
bloody urine and stools. These things considered. Mes-
sieurs, one can make no other prognosis, except that
he will die in a few days, to my great grief.
Having ended my discourse, I dressed him, as I was
accustomed. Having uncovered his wounds, the physi-
cians and surgeons, and other witnesses present, knew
the truth of that which I had said to them. The physi-
cians having felt his pulse, and knowing his forces were
almost prostrated and depressed agreed with me that in
■''Pulmonary artery.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 225
a few days he would die. And directly they went to the
Due de Savoi where they said that the said Monsieur
de Martigues would die in a short time. He answered
them that possibly if he had been well dressed, he could
have escaped. Then they all said with one voice he had
been very well dressed and cared for with all things ap-
pertaining to the curing of his wounds, and it could not
be better, and that it was impossible to cure him, and
that his wound was necessarily mortal. Then Monsieur
de Savoi showed himself very much displeased, and
wept, and asked them again if for certain they all held
him for lost ; they answered only yes.
Then a Spanish impostor presented himself, and
promised on his life that he would cure him, and that if
he failed to cure him they should cut him in a hundred fjj^^^-f ^.
pieces, but he would have no physicians, surgeons, nor a Spanish
apothecaries with him; and at once Monsieur de Savoi
said to the physicians and surgeons that they should go
no more to see Monsieur de JVIartigues. Also he sent a
gentleman to me bidding me on pain of my life not to
touch Monsieur de Martigues. Which I promised not
to do of which I was very glad seeing that he would not _ . ., .^.
•^ '=' ^ ^ Prohibition
die in my hands. And he commanded this impostor to made to the
dress INIonsieur de INIartigues, and that he should have "
no other physicians nor surgeons but him. He arrived
very soon after with INIonsieur de Martigues, to whom he
said, "Senor Cavallero el senor Duque de Sahoya me
226 AMBROISE PARE
}ia mandado que viniesse a curar vostra herida, yo os
jura a Dios, que antes dei ocho dias yo'os hag a suhir a
History af cavdllo con la lansa, en puno con tal que no ayo que yo
Impostor quos toque. Comereis y hebereis todas comidas qu^
fueren de vostro gusto, y yo hare la dieta pro v. m. y
desto' OS de vets aseguirar sobre de mi: yo he sanado
munchos qu€ tenian mayores heridas, que la vostra"
That is to say, "Senor Cavallero, Monseigneur le Due
de Savoi has commanded me to come and dress your
wound. I swear to you by God that before eight days I
will make you mount on horseback, lance in hand, pro-
vided that no one touches you but me. You shall eat
and drink all the viands which are to your taste. I will
be dieted instead of you; and of this you may be assured
on my promise, I have cured many who had greater
wounds than yours." He asked for a shirt of the said
Monsieur de Martigues and he tore it in little strips,
which he placed like a cross, murmuring and muttering
certain words over the wounds ; and having clothed him,
permitted him to eat and drink all that he would saying
to him that he would diet for him; which he did, eating
but six prunes and six morsels of bread for his repast,
drinking only beer. Nevertheless, two days afterwards
the said Monsieur de Martigues died, and my Spaniard,
seeing him in his agony, hid himself and got away with-
out saying goodbye to anyone ; and I beheve that if he
had been taken, he would have been hanged and stran-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 227
gled for the false promise which he had made to Mon-
seigneur le Due de Savoi, and to many other gentlemen.
He died about ten o'clock in the morning; and after
dinner Monseigneur de Savoi sent again the physicians
and surgeons, and his apothecary, with a quantity of
drugs to embalm him. They came accompanied by
many gentlemen and captains of the army.
The surgeon of the Emperor approached me and
prayed me very kindly to make the opening, which I
refused, telling him that I was not worthy to carry his
instrument case after him. He prayed me again to do
it for love of him, and that he would be very glad of it.
I would yet again have excused myself, that since he
had not the wish to embalm him, he would give the
charge to another surgeon of the company. He an-
swered me again that he would it should be I, and that if
I would not do it, I might have to repent it. Knowing
this his desire, for fear that he should do me some dis-
pleasure, I took the razor, and presented it to all indi-
vidually, telling them that I was not well-practiced to
do such an operation; which they all refused.
The body being placed upon a table, verily I pro-
posed to show them that I was an anatomist, declaring
to them many things which would be too long to recite
here. I commenced by telling all the company that I
held it assured that the ball had broken two ribs, and
had passed through the lungs, and that one would find
228 AMBROISE PARE
the wound much enlarged, because they are in perpet-
ual movement, both sleeping and waking, and by this
movement, the wound was more torn; also that there
was a great quantity of blood diffused in the chest and
on the diaphragm, and of splinters of bone from the
fractured ribs, which the entrance of the ball had pushed
within, and the going out had forced without. Now
truly all that I had told them was found in this dead
body.
One of the physicians asked which way the blood
could pass to be cast out by the urine, being contained
in the thorax; I answered him that there was a visible
conduit, which is the azygos vein, which having nour-
ished all the ribs, its remainder descends under the
diaphragm, and on the left side is conjoined with the
emulgent vein, which is the way by which the matter
of the pleurisy, and the pus of empyemas, empties itself
manifestly by the urine and stools ; as one sees hkewise
the pure milk from the breasts of women recently ac-
couched, descend by the mammary veins, and be evac-
uated downwards by the neck of the womb without be-
ing^mixed with blood,^^ and such a thing is done (as by
a miracle of nature) by her expulsive and sequestering
virtue which is seen in the experiment of the two vessels
"Tor this, of course, erroneous statement Pare gives as authorities,
Galen, "De Decretis," and Hippocrates, "De Eocis Aflfectis." It should
be remembered that Pare died in 1590 and that Harvey's demonstration of
the circulation of the blood was not published until 1628.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 229
of glass, called monte-vins, the one of which should be
filled with water, and the other with claret wine; and
they are placed one upon the other, to wit, that which
shall be filled with water on that which is full of wine,
one sees apparently the wine mount to the height of the
vessels right through the water, and the water descend
across the wine and go to the bottom of the vessels with-
out mixture of the two ; and if such a thing accomplishes
itself exteriorly and openly to the sense of sight, by in-
animate things, it is necessary to believe in our under-
standing, that Nature can make pus and blood to pass A good
having been outside their vessels, by the veins, even J""^^«**'^
through the bones unless they be mixed with the good Surgeon
blood.
Our discourse finished, I embalmed the body ; and it
was placed in a coflSn. After that the surgeon of the
Emperor drew me apart and said that if I would re-
main with him he would treat me well, and that he
would clothe me anew, also that he would make me go
on horseback. I thanked him very much for the honor ^rave
he did me, but said that I had no desire to serve foreign- Answer
ers to my country. Then he told me that I was a fool,
and that if he was a prisoner like me, he would serve
a devil to be put at liberty. In the end I told him flatly
that I did not wish to stay with him.
The physician of the Emperor returned to Sei-
gneur de Savoi, where he declared the cause of the death
230 AMBROISE PARE
of Seigneur Martigues, and that it was impossible
for all the men in the world to have cured him, and con-
firmed to him again that I had done all that it was nec-
essary to do, and prayed him to take me into his service,
and said to him more good of me than there was.
Having been persuaded to take me in his service, he
gave charge to one of his maitres d'hotel, named Mon-
sieur du Bouchet, to tell me that if I wished to remain
in his service he would use me well. I answered him
that I thanked him very humbly, but that I had decided
not to remain with any foreigner. This my answer
being heard by the Due de Savoi, he was greatly an-
gered and said I ought to be sent to the galleys.
Monsieur de Vaudeville, governor of Gravelines,
and colonel of seventeen ensigns of infantry, prayed
him to give me to him to dress an old ulcer that he had
had on his leg for six or seven years. Monsieur de
Savoi told him that for what I was worth he was con-
tent, and that if I put the fire to (cauterized) his leg,
it would serve him right. He answered that if he per-
ceived anything like it, he would cause my throat to
be cut.
Soon after Seigneur de Vaudeville sent four Ger-
man halberdiers of his guard to seek me which aston-
ished me very much, not knowing whither they led me,
they not speaking any more French than I did German.
Being arrived at his lodging, he told me that I was wel-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 231
come and that I belonged to him, and that, as soon as
I had cured him of an ulcer which he had on his leg, he
would give me my freedom (conge) without taking any
ransom of me. I told him that I had no means of pay-
ing any ransom.
Then he called his physician and surgeon-in-ordi-
nary to show me his ulcerated leg. Having seen and
considered it we retired apart in a chamber, where I
commenced by saying to them that the said ulcer was
annular, not being simple, but complicated, to wit, of a
round form and scaly, having the borders hard and
callous, hollowed out and filthy, accompanied by a large
varicose vein which continually steeped it, besides a
great swelling and phlegmonous distemperature, very
painful throughout the leg, in a body of very choleric
temperament, as the hair of his face and his countenance
indicated. The method of curing it (if cured it could
be) is that it would be necessary to commence with
things universal, to wit, with purgation, with bleeding,
and with his manner of living, that he should not use
any wine, nor salted meats, nor highly seasoned, and in
general those which would heat the blood. After that
it was necessary to commence the cure by making di-
vers scarifications about the said ulcer, and cutting away
altogether the callous borders, to give it a shape long
or triangular, because the round [ulcer] can hardly be
cured, as the ancients have left it in writing, which one
232 AMBROISE PARE
sees by experience. That done it would be necessary to
cleanse the filthy and rotten flesh from the ulcer, which
should be done with unguentum aegyptiacum,^^ and
over it a compress soaked in the juice of plantain and
of nightshade, and oxycrate; and it was necessary to
bandage his leg, beginning at the foot and finishing at
the knee, and not forgetting to put a small compress on
the varicose vein, to the end that no superfluities should
flow to the ulcer. Moreover, that he should keep him-
self at rest in his bed, which is ordered by Hippocrates,
who said that those who have sore legs should not hold
themselves upright nor seated, but lying down. And
after these things were done, and the ulcer well cleaned,
one should apply over it a plate of lead rubbed and
whitened with quicksilver. These are the means by
which Monsieur de Vaudeville can be cured of his
ulcer. All which they found good. Then the physician
left me with the surgeon and went away to Seigneur de
Vaudeville to tell him that he was sure I could cure him,
and told him all I had resolved to do for the cure of his
ulcer of which he was very glad. He sent for me and
asked me if I thought to cure his ulcer; I told him yes,
provided that he was obedient and did that which was
needful. He promised me that he would do entirely
"An escharotic ointment dating back at least as far as the ninth
century, when it is found described by the Arabian Mesue. Its chief in-
gredients were vinegar and verdigris. It retained its place in some
pharmacopeias into the nineteenth century.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 233
what I wished and ordered, and that so soon as his ulcer
was cured, he would give me liberty to return without
paying any ransom. Then I prayed him to come to a
better settlement with me, remonstrating that the time
would be too long to be out of liberty, until he should
be entirely cured, and that within fifteen days I hoped
to do so that his ulcer would be diminished more than
one-half, and would be without pain, and for that which
remained his surgeon and physician could finish the
cure. He granted this. Then I took a piece of paper
to take the size of his ulcer, which I gave him, and kept
another by me. I prayed him that he would keep his
promise, when he knew the work was done. He swore
to me on the faith of a gentleman that he would do it.
Then I resolved to dress him well, according to the
method of Galen, which was that after having taken all
foreign matters from the ulcer, and that there remained
nothing but filling in with flesh, I dressed him only once
a day, and he found that very strange, and likewise
his physician who was but freshwater [green] who
wished to persuade me, with the patient, to dress him
two or three times a day. I prayed him to let me alone,
that what I did was not to prolong the cure, on the con-
trary to shorten it, for the desire that I had to be at
liberty, and that if he would look in Galen, in the fourth
book, "Of the Composition of Medicaments according to
their kinds," that if a medicament does not remain a
234 AMBROISE PARE
long time on the part, it does not profit so much as
when it is left a long time, a thing which some physi-
cians have ignored, and have thought that it is better to
change the plasters often, and this bad custom is so
inveterate and rooted that patients even often accuse
the surgeons of negUgence that they change not more
often the plasters; but they are deceived. For, as you
have understood and read in divers places in my works,
the qualities of all bodies which touch one another act
the one against the other, and both suffer something,
where one of them is much stronger than the other, by
means thereof the said qualities are united and they be-
come familiarized with time, although they be very dif-
ferent; such way the quality of the medicament unites
itself with and sometimes becomes like that of the body,
which is a very useful thing. Therefore, one should
Why it w much praise him who first discovered the practice of
not neces- not using SO frequently fresh plasters; moreover, we
sary 'o
change know by experience that this discovery is good. More-
plasters over, it is again a great fault in dressing ulcers fre-
quently to wipe them very hard, because one takes
away not only the useless excrement which is the pus
or sanies of the ulcer, but also the matter from which
the flesh is formed. Therefore, for the above stated
reasons, it is not necessary to dress ulcers so often.
The Seigneur de Vaudeville would understand if
that which I alleged from Galen was true, and com-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 235
manded his physician to look there for it, and as he
wished to know it for himself. He caused the book to
be put on the table, where my words were found true,
and the said physician was made ashamed, and I very
glad. The Seigneur de Vaudeville deisred no more to
be dressed more than once a day, of such sort that within
the fifteen days his ulcer was nearly all cicatrized. The
agreement being made between us, I began to be merry.
He made me eat and drink at his table, when there
were no more men of rank than he and me.
He gave me a great red scarf which he commanded
me to wear. I can say I was as glad of it as a dog to
which they give a clog, for fear that he will go to the
vines to eat the grapes. The physician and surgeon led
me through the camp to visit their wounded, where I
took notice what our enemies were doing. I saw that
they had no more great pieces of artillery, but only
twenty-five or thirty fieldpieces.
Monsieur de Vaudeville held prisoner Monsieur de
Bauge, brother of Monsieur de Martigues, who died at
Hesdin. The said Monsieur de Bauge was prisoner
at the Chateau de la Motte au Bois, belonging to the
Emperor. He had been taken at Theroiienne by two
Spanish soldiers. The Seigneur de Vaudeville having
held him concluded he should be some gentleman of
a good house (family). He had his stockings pulled
off, and seeing his shoes and feet clean, with his socks
236
AMBROISE PARE
Monsieur
de Bauge,
prisoner,
sold for
thirty ecus
very white and thin, such things confirmed him further
that he was a man to pay some good ransom. He de-
manded of the soldiers if they would take thirty ecus
for their prisoner and that he would give it to them at
once; to which they agreed willingly, because they had
no means of guarding him, and less of nourishing him,
joined to which they did not know his value, therefore
they delivered their prisoner into the hands of Monsieur
de Vaudeville, who at once sent him with a guard of
four soldiers to the Chateau de la Motte au Bois, with
others of our gentlemen who were prisoners. The
Seigneur de Bauge did not wish to reveal who he was,
and endured much, being on bread and water, and
couched on a little straw. Seigneur de Vaudeville, after
the capture of Hesdin, sent word to Seigneur de Bauge
and the other prisoners that the place of Hesdin had
been taken, and the list of those who had been killed
and among the others Monsieur de Martigues; and
when Monsieur de Bauge heard sounds in his ears, that
his brother Monsieur de Martigues was dead, he be-
gan crying, weeping, and lamenting. HKs guards de-
manded of him why he made so many such piteous
lamentations, he told them it was for the love of Mon-
sieur de Martigues, his brother. Having heard this
the captain of the chateau despatched quickly a man to
announce to Monsieur de Vaudeville that he had a good
prisoner, who having received this news rejoiced greatly
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 237
and the next day sent me with four soldiers and his phy-
sician to the Chateau de la Motte au Bois to know
if his prisoner would give him fifteen thousand crowns
for ransom, and he would send him free to his own
house, and for the present he demanded only the
security of two merchants of Antwerp whom he should
name. The said de Vaudeville persuaded me that I
should make his prisoner agree to this; that is why he
sent me to the Chateau de la Motte au Bois. He or-
dered the captain of the chateau to treat him well and
put him in a tapestried room, also that they should re-
inforce his guard and from now on make him good
cheer at his expense.
The answer of Monsieur de Bauge was that he
could not put himself to ransom, and that it would de-
pend on Monsieur d'Estampes, his uncle, and Made-
moiselle de Bressure, his aunt, and he had no means
of paying such a ransom. I returned with my guards
to Seigneur de Vaudeville and made to him the answer
of the prisoner, who told me that possibly he would
not go forth at so good a bargain; which was true, be-
cause he was found out, whereof forthwith the Queen
of Hungary and JNIonsieur le Due de Savoi sent word
to ^lonsieur de Vaudeville that this morsel was a little
too big for him, and that he must send him to them
(which he did) and that he had enough other prison-
238 AMBROISE PARE
ers without this one. He was put to ransom at forty
thousand ecus besides other expenses.
Returning to Monsieur de Vaudeville I passed by
Saint Omer where I saw their great pieces of artillery,
whereof the most part were fouled and broken. I re-
passed likewise Theroiienne, where I saw not one stone
left on another, except a vestige of the great church,
for the Emperor had ordered the peasants for five or
six leagues about, that they should remove and carry
away the stones so that now you can drive a cart over
the town. As was likewise done at Hesdin (leaving) no
vestige of the chateau or fortress. See the misfortune
which wars bring. And to return to my discourse : soon
after Monsieur de Vaudeville was very well of his ulcer,
and it was nearly cured which was cause that he should
give me leave to go, and he caused me to be conducted
with a passport by a trumpet as far as Abbeville, where
I took post, and sought the King Henri my master at
Aufimon who received me gladly and with good grace.
He sent for Messieurs de Guise, the constable, and
d'Estres to hear from me that which had passed at
the taking of Hesdin, and I made them a faithful re-
port of it, and assured them I had seen the great pieces
of artillery they had taken to Saint Omer ; of which the
King was glad, because he had feared the enemy would
come further into France. He gave me two hundred
ecus to take me home, and I was glad to be at liberty,
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
239
and out of the great torment and noise like thunder
of the devilish artillery and far from the soldiers, blas-
phemers and deniers of God. I wish to say that at the
taking of Hesdin the King was told that I was not killed
but that I was a prisoner. He made Monsieur du Go-
guier, his first physician, write to my wife that I was
living and that she should not be troubled, and that he
would pay my ransom.
Grenadier Lighting His Grenade.
(Lacroix.)
The Battle of Saint Quentin, 1557
60
FTER the battle of Saint Quentin, the
King sent me to la Fere-en- Tardenois,
/ ^ to Monsieur le Mareschal de Bourdillon,
to give me a passport to the Due de
Savoi to go dress Monsieur le Connestable,^^ who had
Constable been greatly wounded by a pistol shot in the back,
wounded in whereof he was like to die and remained a prisoner in
the enemy's hands. But the Due de Savoi would not
consent that I should go to the said Seigneur le Con-
nestable, saying that he would not remain without a
""The town of Saint Quentin was very inadequately fortified by ancient
walls which had fallen down in many places. It was garrisoned by a
mere handful of troops. When it was learned that the troops of Charles
V were going to attack it Admiral Coligny with a few hundred men
threw himself into the city and determined to make an obstinate defence.
The Due de Savoi commanded the Spanish troops which marched to the
attack. The Constable Anne de Montmorenci hastened to the rescue as
the fall of St. Quentin would imperil Paris, and the great importance of
holding the town was fully realized. As the enemy were much superior
in the number and quality of their troops, the Constable had intended
merely to cover a force under Andelot, the brother of Coligny, which
was to be thrown into Saint Quentin to reinforce the garrison. The at-
tempt failed, as the boats necessary to get the French across the Somme
were not ready at the critical time. Only a very few under Andelot suc-
ceeded in entering. As the Constable was returning with his main body,
he was intercepted by the Imperialists and was forced to fight on August
10, 1557. The result was a terrible defeat for the French. The Constable,
Mareschal Saint-Andre, and many other French noblemen were made
prisoners, with 7,000 others; and over six hundred gentlemen, and 3,500
men were killed. The Spanish lost the great advantages which might have
accrued from their victory because they determined to stay and besiege
the town. Under Coligny's leadership it held out for fifteen days, when
it was finally taken by assault and sacked. Coligny was made prisoner.
He had, however, saved Paris by the delay he caused to the Imperial
army as it afforded time for Henri II to organize its defence.
*^Anne de Montmorenci.
240
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 241
surgeon, and that he doubted very much if I was go-
ing solely to dress him but rather to give some message
to the said Monsieur le Connestable, and that he knew
that I knew very well how to do other things than sur-
gery, and that he knew me for having been his prisoner
at Hesdin. Monsieur le Mareschal de Bourdillon no-
tified the King of the refusal the Due de Savoi had
made. He [the King] wrote to Seigneur de Bourdil-
lon, that if Madame la Connestable would send some
one of her household who was a clever man, that I
would give him a letter, and that I had also something
to say to him by word of mouth which the King and
Monsieur le Cardinal de Lorraine^^ had entrusted to
me. Two days after there arrived a valet de chambre
of the said Monsieur le Connestable, who carried to
him shirts and other hnen, to whom Seigneur le
IMareschal gave a passport to go to Seigneur le Con-
nestable. I was very glad and gave him my letter, and
gave him his lesson of that which his master should
do being prisoner.
I thought having finished my mission, to return to
the King; but Seigneur de Bourdillon prayed me to re-
main at la Fere with him, to dress a great number of
wounded who had retired there after the battle; and
that he would write to the King the cause of my re-
"Charles Cardinal of Lorraine, brother of Francois, Due de Guise, was
made Archbishop of Rheims when fifteen years old. He died in 1574.
242 AMBROISE PARE
maining, which I did. The wounds of the injured were
very putrid, and full of worms, with gangrene and
rottenness so that it was necessary for me to use the
knife to amputate that which was corrupt, and it was
not done without cutting off arms and legs, and also
many trepannings. But they found no medicaments
at la Fere, because the surgeons of our camp had car-
ried them all away. I found out that the artillery
wagons remained at la Fere, and that they had not yet
been touched. I told the said Seigneur le Mareschal
that he should cause to be delivered to me a part of the
drugs which were in them; which he did, and I was
given the half only at one time, and five or six days
after it was necessary for me to take all the rest; and
yet there was not half enough to dress the great num-
ber of wounded. And to correct and arrest the putre-
faction, and kill the worms which were in their wounds,
I washed them with aegyptiacum dissolved in wine
and brandy, and did all which I could for them; never-
theless, with all my diligence, many of them died.
There were at la Fere gentlemen who had charge
of Bois- to find the dead body of Monsieur de Bois-Dauphin,
the^ elder *^^ elder, who had been killed in the battle ; they prayed
cmild not me to be willing to go with them to the camp to pick
he found i i i •« -i i
hmi out irom among the dead, it possible to recognize
him; seeing that the bodies were all disfigured and de-
stroyed by putrefaction. We saw more than a half a
The corpse
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 243
league about us the earth all covered with dead bodies;
and we could scarcely remain there because of the great
cadaverous stench which raised itself from the bodies as
much of men as of the horses, and I believe that we were
the cause of making rise up from these bodies a great
number of big flies which had procreated themselves
from the humidity of the dead bodies and the heat of the
sun, having their tails green and blue, that being in the
air they made a shadow in the sun. We heard them buz-
zing with great wonder ; and I believe that there where
they settled it would render the air pestilent and cause
the plague.
Mon petit maistre, I wish you had been there, as I
was, to discern the odors and also to make report there-
of to them that were not there.
I was very much wearied there. I prayed Monsieur
le Mareschal to give me leave to go away, and was
afraid of remaining there sick, by reason of my too
great work, and the stench of the wounded, who almost
all died, whatever diligence I could use. He made
surgeons come to finish the treatment of the wounded,
and I went away wuth his good grace. He wrote a let-
ter to the King of the pains that I had taken for the
poor wounded. Then I returned to Paris, where I
found again many gentlemen who had been wounded,
who had retired there after the battle.
The Journey to the Camp at Amiens, 1558
T
HE King sent me to Dourlan ®^ and
caused me to be conducted by Captain
Gouast with fifty men-at-arms, for fear that
I should be taken by the enemy, and see-
ing that we were always in alarms, by the way, I
caused my man to dismount, and made that he should
be master; for I got on his horse, which carried my
Ruse of bag, and would foot it well if it were necessary to fly,
the Author ^^^ ^^^j^ j^j^ cloak and hat, and gave him my mount
which was a beautiful little hackney mare. My man
being up, one would have taken him for the master and
me for his valet. Those in Dourlan, seeing us from
afar, thought we were enemies and fired cannon-shot
at us. Captain Gouast, my conductor, made a sign to
them with his hat that we were not enemies; at length
they ceased firing and we entered Dourlan with great
joy-
Those in Dourlan had made a sortie on the enemy
five or six days before; who killed and wounded many
of our captains and good soldiers, and among the others,
Captain Saint Aubin, valiant as the sword, whom Mon-
sieur de Guise loved much, and for whom principally the
King had sent me there. Who, being in an access of
''Dourlan is now called DouUens.
244
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 245
quartan fever, would go forth to command the greater
part of liis company. A Spaniard, seeing that he
commanded, perceived him to be a captain, and shot
him with an arquebus right through the neck. My Cap-
tain Saint Aubin thought he was dead of this shot and
from the fright; I protest to God he lost his quartan
fever and was delivered altogether from it. I dressed
him with Antoine Portail,*'* surgeon-in-ordinary of the
King, and many other soldiers. Some died, the others
escaped, quits for an arm or a leg, or the loss of an eye,
and these said they had got off cheap, those that could
escape. When the enemy had broken their camp, I re-
turned to Paris.
Here I say nothing to mon petit maistre, who was
more at his ease in his house than I at the wars.
"Antoine Portail was born at Beam in 1530, He came in the suite
of Jeanne d'Albret to Paris, where he studied and became a barber-sur-
geon. He married a relative of Fare's first wife. He became surgeon-
in-ordinary to Henri II, Charles IX, and Henri III. Henri IV made him
his premier surgeon. He once injured a nerve in the arm of Charles IX
while bleeding him. He was closely associated with Pare over a period of
years. In 1561 he dressed Pare's leg when it was fractured. The exact
date of his death is unknown. Peyrilhe says he died on April 20, 1607,
but Le Paulmier proves this statement to be erroneous because he was
still premier surgeon to the King in 1608.
T
The Journey to Bourges, 1562^^
HE king with his camp remained but
a short time at Bourges until those
within should surrender themselves; and
they went forth with their jewels saved.
I know nothing worthy of memory, save that a
boy of the King's privy kitchen having approached
to the walls before they had entered into an agree-
ment, cried out with a loud voice "Huguenot, Hugue-
not, shoot here." Having his arm raised and his
hand extended, a soldier shot his hand right through
with a bullet. Having received the shot, he came to find
me to dress him. Monsieur le Connestable seeing this
*I have followed Paget's example in placing the Journey to Bourges,
the Journey to Rouen, and Fare's account of the Battle of Dreux in
their chronological sequence, in the year 1563, and placed after them his
account of his Journey to Havre de Grace, which took place in 1563.
The vear 1562 has been termed, by the historian Batifol, one of the most
lamentable in the history of France. The war between the Huguenots and
the Catholics was at its height; Charles IX was King, but his mother,
Catherine de Medici, was regent, and with the Guises she had determined
to exterminate Protestantism in France. Led by Conde and Cohgny, the
Huguenots were putting up a desperate fight for existence. Many cities
including Rouen and Bourges were occupied by the Huguenots, accom-
panied by English troops, which Elizabeth had sent to aid their cause.
The garrison was under command of Gabriel de Montgomeri, Comte
de Lorges. He had been captain of the Scottish Guards of Henri
II. At a tournament which was held at Paris in 1557, he had had the
misfortune to accidentally kill the King while jousting with him. He fled
to England, became a Protestant, and was thenceforth prominent among
the Huguenot leaders. Catherine de Medici never forgave him for the
death of her husband, and when he was captured, after surrendering
under promise that his life would be spared, at Domfront in 1574, he was
taken to Paris, tried for high treason, found guilty and beheaded and
quartered. Catherine witnessed the execution.
246
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
247
boy, having his hand all bloody, and in tears, asked him
who had wounded him : then there was a gentleman who
having seen him shot, said that it was well deserved,
because he had cried "Huguenot, strike here, aim
Mangonnel or Mangonneau.
{Lacroix.)
here." Then Seigneur le Connestable said that this
Huguenot was a good arquebusier, and had a good con-
science, because it was very likely if he had wished to
shoot him in the head, he could have done it yet more
easily than in the hand. I dressed the cook, who was
very sick. He recovered, but with loss of the use of
his hand, and ever since his companions call him
"Huguenot"; he is yet living.
The Journey to Rouen, 1562
OW as for the taking of Rouen, they killed
many of ours before and at the assault:
the next day, even, after we had entered
into the city, I trepanned eight or nine of
them who had been wounded in the breach by blows
with stones. There was so malignant an air that
it caused many deaths, even from very little wounds, in
such sort that some thought that they had poisoned
their bullets. Those within said the same of us: for
though they had been well- furnished for their necessities
within the city, they died just as those without.
The King of Navarre^ ^ was wounded some days be-
fore the assault by a bullet shot in the shoulder. I visited
History of ^^^ ^^^ aided in dressing him with his surgeon, named
the wound Maitre Gilbert, one of the chief [surgeons] of Montpel-
of the King ^ -n t
of Navarre licr, and others. They could not find the ball. I
searched for it very exactly. I perceived by conjec-
ture that it had entered by the head of the bone at the
top of the arm, and that it had run into the cavity of
the bone, which was the cause that they could not find
it. The greater part said it had entered and was lost
•"Antoine de Bourbon, brother of the Prince de Cond6, was born in
1518. He was first Due de Vendome, but became King of Navarre in
1548, by his marriage with Jeanne d'Albret. He had been a supporter of
the Huguenot cause but had gone over to the Catholics.
248
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 249
in the body. Monsieur le Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon,
who loved intimately the King of Navarre, drew me
apart and asked if the shot was mortal. I told him yes,
because all wounds made in the great joints, and es-
pecially contused wounds, were mortal, according to
all the authors who had written of them. He inquired of
the others what they thought, and chiefly of the said
Gilbert who told him he had great hope that the King,
his Master, would recover; and the Prince was very
glad.
Four days later the King^^ and the Queen Mother,®^
and Monsieur le Cardinal de Bourbon, his brother, and
Monsieur le Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, and Monsieur
de Guise, and other grand personages, after we had
dressed the King of Navarre, wished us to hold a consul-
tation in their presence, where there were many physi-
cians and surgeons. Each said that which he thought,
and there was not one of them but had good hope (they
said) that the King would recover, and I persisted al- consulta-
ways to the contrary. Monseigneur le Prince de la i^onforthe
Roche-sur-Yon, who loved me, drew me apart, and told Navarre
me that I was alone against the opinion of all the
others, and prayed me not to be obstinate against so
many men of worth, I answered him, that when I saw
good signs of recovery, I would change my advice.
•'Charles IX.
•^Catherine de Medici.
250
AMBROISE PARE
Many consultations were held, where I never changed
my word, and the prognosis which I had made at the
first dressing, and I said always that the arm would be-
come gangrenous, which it did, whatsoever great
Death of
the King of
Navarre
Bullet Forceps.
diligence they had used to it ; and he rendered his spirit
to God, the eighteenth day after his wound.
Monsieur le Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, having
heard of the death of the said King, sent to me his sur-
geon and physician named le Fevre,^® now physician-in-
ordinary to the King and the Queen Mother, to tell me
that he wished to have the ball, and that we should search
for it in whatever place it was. Then I was glad, and
told them that I was well-assured of finding it very soon;
which I did in their presence and that of many gentle-
men; it was just in the middle of the cavity of the bone
•'Charles le Fevre was physician-in-ordinary to Charles IX, Henry III,
and Catherine de Medici.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
251
at the top of the arm. The said Prince having it,
showed it to the King and the Queen, who both said that
my prognosis was found true. The body was put at
rest in the Chateau Gaillard, and I returned to Paris,
where I found many sick, who had been wounded at
the breach of Rouen, and principally Italians, who de-
sired me very much to dress their wounds, which I did
willingly. There were many who recovered; the rest
died.
I believe, mon petit inaistre, that you were called to
dress some of them, for the great number that there
were.
Different Types of Cannon.
(Sixteenth Century.)
The Journey to the Battle of Dreux, 1562
70
Death of
the Comte
d'Eu
HE day after the battle at Dreux, the
King commanded me to go and dress
Monsieur le Comte d'Eu ^^ who had been
wounded by a pistol shot in the right
thigh, near the hip joint, which had shattered and broken
the femoral bone in many splinters, to which many ac-
cidents supervened, and at last, death ; which was to my
very great sorrow. The day after I arrived, I wished to
go to the camp where the battle had taken place, to see
the dead bodies. I saw for a great league about, the
whole earth covered, where they estimated of them
twenty-five thousand men or more; all which were
despatched in less than two hours. I wish, mon petit
maistre, for the love that I bear you, that you had been
there to tell it to your scholars and to your children.
Now while I was at Dreux I visited and dressed a
■"During the summer and autumn of 1562, Cond6 with a large army
had threatened Paris, while the King and Queen Mother were at Rouen.
But seeing that he could do nothing in that direction, he had fallen back
in order to make a junction with the English in Normandj'. At Dreux
he encountered the Catholic forces under the Constable Montmorenci, the
Marshal Saint Andre, and the Duke Francois de Guise. The battle took
place on November 19, 1563, and was most sanguinary. The Catholics
won a decisive victory although Marshal Saint Andr6 was killed and the
Constable taken prisoner by the Huguenots.
"Francois de Cleves, Due de Nevers, Comte d'Auxerre, d'Rethel, and
d'Eu, Seigneur d'Orval, Governor of Champagne, born in 1538, was acci-
dentally wounded on the morning of the battle of Dreux by Monsieur
des Bordes, one of his gentlemen. He died of his wound on January
10, 1563.
252
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
253
great number of gentlemen and poor soldiers, and
among the others, many Swiss captains. I dressed
fourteen of them in a single room, all wounded by pistol
shots and other devilish firearms, and not one of the
fourteen died. Monsieur le Comte d'Eu being dead, I
did not make a long stay at Dreux. There came sur-
geons from Paris who did their duty well to the
wounded, as Pigray,^^ Cointeret,^^ Hubert,^^ and others.
I returned to Paris, where I found many wounded gen-
tlemen who had retired there after the battle to have
their wounds dressed, where I was not without seeing
many of them.
"Pierre Pigray, born at Paris in 1531, was a pupil of Pare. He was
received as master surgeon In 1564. He was surgeon in ordinary to
Charles IX, Henri HI, and Henri IV. He died October 16, 1613.
"Jean Cointeret was sworn surgeon to the King at the Chatelet. He
died May 13, 1592.
"Richard Hubert was surgeon to Charles IX. He died September
7, 1681.
French Cannon.
{Sixteenth Century.)
The Journey to Havre de Grace, 1563
YJET I do not wish to omit to speak of the
camp at Havre de Grace. When they
made the approaches to place the artil-
I lery, the English,^^ who were within,
killed some of our soldiers and many pioneers who were
placing gabions; whom, when they were seen to be so
badly wounded that there was no hope of recovery, their
companions stripped, and put them still living with the
gabions, which served them for so much filling. The
English seeing that they could not sustain an assault,
because they were much attainted with disease, and
chiefly with the plague, rendered themselves, saving
their valuables. The King let them have vessels to return
to England, very glad to be out of this place infected
with the plague. The greater part of them died of it;
and they carried the plague into England, which since
then has never been free from it. Captain Sarlabous,
master of the camp, was left in garrison with six en-
signs of infantry, who had no fear of the plague, and
who were very glad of entering there, hoping to make
good cheer.
Mon petit maistre, if you had been there, you would
have done as they did.
"As stated in a previous footnote, there were English auxiliaries with the
army of the Huguenots.
254
The Journey to Bayonne, 1564
78
N
OW I say again, moreover, that I made
the journey to Bayonne, with the King,
where we were two years and more tour-
ing nearly all this kingdom, where in
many towns and villages I was called in consultation in
divers sicknesses with the late Monsieur Chapelain,^^
first physician to the King, and Monsieur Castellan,'^^
premier physician to the Queen Mother, men of honor Curiosity
and very learned in medicine and surgery. Makmg this Diligence
journey I always asked of surgeons if they had re- ^J *J^^
marked anything rare in their practice, to the end of
learning something new.
Being at Bayonne, there happened two things of re-
mark for young surgeons. The first is, I dressed a
Spanish gentleman who had a great and enormous
abscess in his throat. He came to be touched by the late
"In Fare's book this narrative is misplaced chronologically, and I
have again thought it proper, as did Paget, to place it in proper sequence.
In 1564 the Queen Mother and King Charles IX began a long progress,
lasting two years, throughout the kingdom ending at Bayonne, where
they met Alva and where it is said the plans were laid for the Massacre of
Saint Bartholomew. Pare accompanied the court as surgeon to the King,
■"Jean Chapelain was physician in ordinary to Francois I, and premier
physician to Henri II, and Charles IX. He died in 1569, at the siege of
Saint Jean D'Angely. Pare, in 1562, dedicated to him his book "La
Methode curative des playes et fractiires de la teste humaine."
"Honore du Chaste!, called Castellanus or Castellan, was physician-
in-ordinary to Henri II, Francois II, and Charles IX, and premier phy-
sician to Catherine de Medici. He died on November 4, 1569, at the
siege of Saint Jean d'Angely, of the same disease and in the same house
as his colleague Chapelain.
255
256 AMBROISE PARE
King Charles for the King's evil. I opened his abscess,
where there was found a great quantity of worms, all
creeping, big as the point of a spindle having the head
black and there was a great quantity of rotten flesh.
Moreover, he had under his tongue a swelling called
"ranula," which hindered him in speaking, and chewing
or swallowing his food. He prayed me with clasped
hands to open it for him, if it could be done without peril
to his person; which I did promptly and found under
my lancet a solid body which was five stones, like those
which we take from the bladder. The greatest was the
size of a small almond, and the others like little long
beans which numbered five. In the swelling was con-
tained a glairy humor, of a yellow color, in quantity
more than could be held in four silver spoons. I left
him in the hands of a surgeon of the town to finish his
cure.
Monsieur de Fontaine, knight of the order of the
king, had a great continued fever, pestilent, accom-
panied with many inflammatory swellings [charbons] in
divers parts of his body, who was two days without
stopping bleeding from the nose, nor could it be
staunched; and by this flux, the fever ceased with a
very great sweat and soon after the swellings sup-
purated; and he was dressed by me and cured by the
grace of God.
Types of French Soldiers ,n the Sixteenth CENTrRV
1. Captain of imisquctci-rs.
2. Garde du corps.
;5. Musqiieteer.
4. Swiss of the IU)yal tluard.
The Battle of Saint Denis, 1567'
79
AND as for the battle of Saint Denis, there
were many killed as well on one side as on
the other. Our wounded retired to Paris
I to be dressed, together with the prisoners
taken, of whom I dressed a great part.
The King commanded me at the request of Madame
la Connestable to go to her house to dress Monsieur
le Connestable who had a pistol shot in the middle
of the spine of his back; whereby he suddenly lost all
sensation and movement of the thighs and legs, and his
excrements were retained, not being able to pass his
urine, nor anything by the rectum, because the spinal
cord, from which proceed the nerves, to give feeling
and movement to the inferior parts, was crushed,
broken, and torn, by the force of the ball. He lost
likewise understanding, and reason, and in a few days
he died. The surgeons of Paris were a long time
troubled to dress the said wounded. I believe, mon
petit maistre, you visited some of them. I pray the
great God of victories that we may never (again) be
employed in such a misfortune and disaster.
''"The battle of Saint Denis was fought on November 10, 1567. The
Huguenot forces were led by the Prince de Conde. The Constable Anne
de Montmorenci led the Royalists. The Huguenots were defeated but the
old Constable died as Par6 tells us. Pare was with the Royalists in Paris.
257
The Journey of the Battle of Moncontour, 1569 ^^
URING the battle of Moncontour, King
Charles was at Plessis-les-Tours, where
he heard it had been won. A great num-
ber of gentlemen and soldiers retired into
the city and suburbs of Tours, wounded, to get them-
selves dressed and treated; where the King and Queen
Mother commanded me to do my duty to them, with
the other surgeons who were then in quarters, as Pigray,
Du Bois,^^ Portail, and one named Siret, surgeon of
Tours, a well-informed man in surgery, being the sur-
geon of Monseigneur, brother of the King; and for the
multitude of wounded we had scarcely any rest nor the
physicians likewise.
Monsieur le Comte de Mansfeld,^^ -Governor of
the Duchy of Luxembourg, chevalier of the order of the
king of Spain, was greatly wounded in the battle, in the
left arm, by a pistol shot which broke a great part of his
elbow; and he had retired to Bourgueil near Tours. Be-
ing there he sent a gentleman to the King, begging him
very affectionately that he would send one of his sur-
«°The Battle of Moncontour took place October 3, 1569, The Huguenots
under Admiral Coligny were utterly defeated by the Due d'Anjou and
Marshal Tavannes.
"'Guillame du Bois, surgeon in ordinary to Charles IX.
**Peter Ernest de Mansfield married a sister of Francois de Bassom-
pierre, the father of Christophe de Bassompierre, and grandfather of the
famous Mar^chal de Bassompierre.
2.58
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 259
geons to succor him of his wound. Council was held
what surgeon should be sent there. Monsieur le Mare-
schal de Montmorenci told the King and Queen that
it would be best to send his premier surgeon, and de-
clared to them that Monsieur de Mansfeld had been a
great part of the cause of the gaining of the battle.
The King said flatly that he would not that I should
go, and wished that I should remain near him. Then
the Queen Mother said to him that I would but go and
come, and that he must consider that this was a foreign
lord who had come on the part of the King of Spain to
his succor. Then he permitted me to go there provided
that I should return very soon. Then he sent to seek
me, and likewise the Queen Mother, and they com-
manded me to go and find the said Seigneur Comte de
Mansfeld, wherever he should be, to serve him in all
that I could for the cure of his wound. I went and
found him, having with me a letter from their Majesties.
Having seen it, he received me with good-will, and
thenceforth discharged three or four surgeons who
had dressed him ; which was to my very great regret, be-
cause his wound seemed to me to be incurable.
Now at the said Bourgueil, there were retired many
gentlemen, who had been wounded in the said battle
knowing that Monsieur de Guise was there, who had
also been much wounded by a pistol shot through one
leg, and being well assured that he would have good
26o
AMBROISE PARE
Death of
Count
Rin grave
Monsieur
de Bassom-
pierre
surgeons to dress him, and that he was kindly and very
liberal, and that he would assist them in a great part
of their necessities. Which truly he did willingly, as
much for the eating and drinking as for other neces-
saries ; and for my . part they were solaced and aided
by my art; some died, others recovered, according to
their wounds. Le Comte Ringrave,^^ who had a shot in
the shoulder like to that which the King of Navarre had
before Rouen, died. Monsieur de Bassompierre,^*
colonel of twelve hundred horse, was likewise wounded
by a like shot in the same place as Monsieur le Comte
de Mansfeld; whom I dressed and God healed. God
blessed my work so well that in three weeks I sent themi
back to Paris, where it was necessary to yet make some
incisions in the arm of the Comte de Mansfeld to ex-
tract the bone which was greatly splintered, broken and
carious. He was cured by the grace of God, and he
made me a handsome present; of such sort that I was
well contented with him and he with me, as he has
shown me since. He wrote a letter to Monsieur le Due
d'Ascot,^^ how he was cured of his wound, and likewise
Monsieur de Bassompierre of his, and many others that
I had dressed after the battle of Moncontour, and coun-
^Jean Philippe II, Comte Ringrave was bom in 1545. In 1566 he
married Diane de Dommartin, daughter of the Comte du Fontenay, and
cousin-german of Christophe Bassompierre.
**Father of the famous Marechal Fran9ois de Bassompierre. He was a
colonel in the army at the age of 18.
^Phillipe III, Due d'Arschot, Prince de Chimay, was bom July 10,
1526, and died December, 1595.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE
261
selled him to beg the King of France to permit me to
go see Monsieur le Marquis d'Auret,^** his brother;
which he did.^^
"Charles Philippe de Croy was born September first, 1549, he married
Dianne de Dommartin, the widow of the Comte de Ringrave, whose
death has just been mentioned by Par6.
'^In the memoirs of the Marechal de Bassompierre there is an inter-
esting account of the wounding of these three colonels. Christophe de
Bassompierre had previously at the battle of Jarnac been wounded in his
left elbow by a pistol shot which had crippled him. At Monconlour all
three relatives were wounded at the same place in the same arm and were
all dressed in the same room by the same surgeon, Ambroise Pare. The
Marshal unfortunately shows a tendency to detract from the credit due
to the latter by attributing the recovery of the two Bassompierres to the
use of a water given to them by Monsieur de Guise, and the death of
Le Comte Ringrave to a lack of it. The Marshal says Pare told his
father and uncle that, the elbow joint being destroyed, they could choose
whether they would have the arm dressed straight or bent. The Marshal's
father, Christophe, had his dressed in the extended position and ultimately
got very good use of it. His uncle had his dressed in the curved position
and it was afterwards of very little service to him.
Wounded Soldiers.
(Lacraix after J. Callot.)
The Journey to Flanders
ONSIEUR LE DUG D'ASCOT did not
fail to send a gentleman to the King with
a letter to pray him humbly that he would
do him so much good and honor as to
permit and command his premier surgeon to come to
see Monsieur le Marquis d'Auret, his brother, who had
received an arquebus shot near the knee, with fracture
of the bone, about seven months ago, and that the physi-
cians and surgeons of those parts were much troubled
to cure. The King sent for me, and commanded me
to go to see the said Seigneur d'Auret, and to help
him by all that which I could for the cure of his wound.
I told him that I would use all the little knowledge
which it had pleased God to give me.
I went away, accompanied by two gentlemen, to the
Chateau d'Auret,®^ where the Marquis was. As soon
as I arrived, I visited him and told him that the King
had commanded me to come to see him and dress his
wound. He said to me that he was very glad of my
coming, and was greatly beholden to the King, having
done him so much honor in sending me to him. I found
him with great fever, his eyes very much sunken, with
a moribund and yellowish face, his tongue dry and
**The chateau was about a league and a half from Mons in Hainault.
262
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 263
parched, and all his body very emaciated and thin, his
voice low as of a man very near to death ; then I found
his thigh much swollen, abscessed and ulcerated, dis-
charging a greenish and fetid sanies. I probed it with
a silver probe. By it I found a cavity near the groin,
ending in the middle of the thigh, and others around the
knee, sanious and caniculate; also certain splinters of
bone, some separated and others not. The leg was very
swollen, and imbued with a pituitous humor, cold and
humid and flatulent (in such sort that the natural heat
was by way of being suffocated and extinguished) and
bent and drawn towards the buttocks; the buttocks ul-
cerated of the size of the palm of the hand ; and he said
he felt there extreme heat and pain, and likewise in his
loins; in such sort that he could not rest day or night,
and had no appetite to eat, but to drink enough. It
was told me that he often fell with weakness of the
heart, and sometimes as in epilepsy, and had often de-
sired to vomit, with a trembling such that he could
not carry his hands to his mouth. Seeing and consider-
ing all these great complications, and the forces much
abated, truly I had a very great regret to have gone to
him, because it seemed to me there was little appearance
that he could escape from death. Notwithstanding, to
give him courage and good hope, I told him I would
soon set him up right, by the grace of God, and the help
of his physicians and surgeons.
264 AMBROISE PARE
Having seen him I went away to walk in a garden,
and there I prayed God that he would do me this grace
that he should recover, and that he would bless our
hands and the medicaments to fight against so many
complicated maladies. I discussed in my mind the
means it would be necessary for me to hold to do this.
They called me to dinner; I entered by the kitchen,
where I saw taken out of a great pot, half a sheep, a
quarter of veal, three great pieces of beef, and two
fowls and a very great piece of bacon, with abundance
of good herbs ; then I said to myself, that this broth of
the pot was succulent and of good nourishment. After
dinner, all the physicians and surgeons assembled; we
entered into consultation in the presence of Monsieur
le Due d'Ascot and some gentlemen who accompanied
him. I began by saying to the surgeons that I was
greatly astonished that they had not made openings
in the thigh of Monsieur le Marquis, which was all
abscessed, and the pus which went forth from it very
fetid and stinking, which showed it had been stagnant
there a long time, and that I had found with the probe
caries of the bone, and splinters of bone which had al-
ready separated. They answered me that he never
would consent to it, and, indeed, that it was near two
months that they had not been able to get leave to put
clean sheets on his bed; and they scarcely dared to touch
the coverlet, so great was his pain. Then I said that
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 265
to cure him it was necessary to touch other things than
the coverlet of the bed. Each said that which he thought
of the sickness of the said seigneur, and for conchision
held it altogether hopeless. I said to them there was yet
some hope, because of his youth, and that God and
Nature sometimes do things which seem to physicians
and surgeons to be impossible. My advice was that the
Advice of
cause of all these accidents came by [reason of J the the Author
bullet hitting near the joint of the knee, which had
broken the ligaments, tendons, and aponeuroses of the
muscles, which bound the said joint together with the
femoral bone; as well as the nerves, veins, and arteries,
from which had followed pain, inflammation, abscess
formation, and ulceration, and that we must commence
the cure by that of the disease, that was the cause of all
the aforesaid accidents, to wit, to make openings to
give issue to the sanious matter retained in the spaces
between the muscles, and in their substance; likewise
to the bone (sequestra) which caused a great corruption
in the whole thigh, from which the vapors arose and
were carried to the heart, which caused syncope and
fever, and from the fever a universal heat in all the
body, and by consequence depravation of the economy.
Likewise the said vapors were communicated to the
brain, which caused the epilepsy and tremors, and nausea
of the stomach, and prevented it from performing its
functions, which are chiefly to digest and concoct the
266 AMBROISE PARE
viands and convert them into chyle which if they are not
well concocted it ingenders crudities and obstructions,
which makes that the parts are not nourished and in con-
sequence the body dries and becomes emaciated, and
likewise because it gets no exercise. And as to the
edema of his leg, that had come because of lack of ali-
ment, and of the arrest of the natural heat through all
the thigh, and also because it had no power of move-
ment, because every part which is incapable of move-
ment remains languid and atrophied, because the heat
Why a part ^^^ [vital] spirits are not sent nor drawn hither, from
becomes , . .
atrophied which ensues mortification. And to nourish and fatten
the body it is necessary to make universal frictions with
warm linen cloths, above, below, on the right and on
the left, and round about, for the purpose of drawing
the blood and [vital] spirits from within outwards;
and to disperse any fuliginous vapors retained between
the skin and the flesh, thus the parts shall thereafter be
nourished and restored (as I have said before in Book
nine, treating of arquebus wounds). And it is neces-
sary to stop when we see heat and redness in the skin,
for fear of dispersing that which has been drawn out,
and by consequence make it more emaciated. Now the
bedsore on his buttock has come from having been too
long a time lying on it, without moving himself, which
has been the cause that the [vital] spirits have not been
able to shine in it. From this cause there has been in-
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 267
flammation, from the inflammation abscess, then ulcera-
tion, even with loss of substance of the flesh subjected,
with very great pain, because of the nerves which are
disseminated in this part. It is necessary, likewise, that
we should put him in another bed, very soft, and give
him a clean shirt and sheets, otherwise all the things
which one could do for Iiim would be of no service, be-
cause that the excrements and vapors of the discharges
retained for so long a time in his bed, are drawn in by
the systole and diastole of the arteries, which are dis-
seminated by the skin, and cause the [vital] spirits to
change and acquire a bad diathesia or quality, and cor-
ruption, which is seen in those who lie in a bed whereon
a smallpox patient has lain and sweat, who get the
smallpox by the putrid vapors, which are imbued and Why he
remain in the sheets and coverlets. Now the reason sleep
that he cannot sleep, and is almost in a consumption, is
because he eats little and takes no exercise, and is
vexed with great pains; because there is nothing which
lowers and prostrates the [body] forces more than pain.
The cause of his parched dry tongue comes from the
vehemence and heat of the fever, by the vapors which
ascend from all the body to the mouth, for as is said
in a common proverb, "When an oven is well heated,
the mouth feels it." Having discoursed of the causes
and complications I said that it was necessary to cure
them by their contraries; and first to ease the pains,
268 AMBROISE PARE
making incisions in the thigh to evacuate the retained
pus, not letting it out all at a time, for fear that by a
sudden great evacuation it would cause a resolution of
the [vital] spirits, which would greatly debilitate the
patient and shorten his days. Secondly, having regard
to the great swelling and coldness of the leg, fearing lest
it should fall into a gangrene, and that it would be
necessary to apply actual heat [the actual cautery],
because the potential could not reduce the intempera-.
ture de rotentia ad actum; for this reason we should
apply about it hot bricks, on which should be sprinkled
a decoction made of nerval herbs boiled in wine and vine-
gar, then wrapped in napkins, and to his feet an earth-
enware bottle filled with the said decoction, corked and
wrapped in linen. Also it is necesary to make fomenta-
tions on the thigh and the whole of the leg of a decoc-
tion made of sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, flowers
of camomile, and melilot, red roses boiled in white wine,
and a desiccant made of oak ashes, and a little vinegar,
and a half a handful of salt. This decoction has the
property to subtilize, attenuate, incise, resolve, wither
and dry up the thick, viscous humor. The said fo-
mentations should be kept up a long time to the end that
the resolution should be greater because being thus
made for a long time, more is resolved than is attracted,
because as one liquefies the humor contained in the part
the skin and the flesh of the muscles are rarefied.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 269
Thirdly, that there must be applied on the buttock a
large plaster made of desiccative red ointment,^^ and
unguentum comitissae,^*^ equal parts mixed together
for the purpose of easing his pain and drying the ulcer;
also we should make him a little pillow of down to keep
his buttock in the air, without his being supported on it.
Fourthly, to refresh the heat of his loins, we should ap-
ply over them the refrigerant ointment of Galen,^^
freshly made, and over it fresh leaves of the water-lily,
and then a napkin soaked in oxycrate, frequently
sprinkled and renewed. And to support the heart, we
must apply over it a refrigerant medicament, made of
oil of water-lilies, ointment of roses, and a little saffron,
dissolved in rose-vinegar and theriaca,^" spread on a
piece of scarlet cloth. For the sjmcope, which pro-
ceeded from the exhaustion of the natural forces, trou-
bling also the brain, it was necessary to use good succu-
^'Unguentum Desiccativum Rubrum contained litharge, bole armeniac,
calamine, and camphor. It was much used to dry up sores.
"'Unguentum Comitissae was an ointment composed chiefly of various
vegetable astringents, such as oak and chestnut bark, cheliodonia, and
myrtle.
'^Unguentum Refrigerans, sometimes called Ceratum Refrigerans, was
practically identical with our "cold cream." Its invention was attributed
to Galen.
^Theriaca, or treacle as it was known in English, was the invention
of Andromachus, physician to the Emperor Nero. It was supposed to be
the universal antidote, besides being useful in the greatest variety of
diseases and pathological conditions. It contained an immense number of
ingredients, including vipers. Its manufacture and preparation was a
matter of great ceremony. In the seventeenth century the best theriaca
was supposed to be made in Venice. In 1646 John Evelyn was in
Venice and he writes, "Having pack'd up my purchases of books, pictures,
casts, treacle (the making and extraordinary ceremonies whereof I had
been curious to observe, for 'tis extremely pompous and worth seeing)
I departed from Venice."
270 AMBROISE PARE
lent food, as soft-boiled eggs, plums stewed in wine and
sugar, also broth of the juice of the great pot (of which
I have spoken before) ; with the white meat of capons,
Soup of the wings of partridges, minced small, and other roasted
S^^^ po meats, easy to digest as veal, kid, pigeons, partridges,
thrushes, and the like. The sauce should be oranges,
verjuice, sorrel, bitter pomegranates; and he should like-
wise eat them boiled with good herbs as sorrel, lettuce,
purslain, chicory, bugloss, marigolds, and the like. At
night he can take barley-water, with the juice of sor-
rel and water-lilies, of each two ounces, with four or
five grains of opium,^^ and of the four cold seeds bruised
of each a half an ounce, which is a nourishing and medic-
inal remedy, and will make him sleep. His bread should
be that of the farm, neither too stale nor too fresh. And
for the great pain in his head, it would be necessary to
cut his hair, and to rub it with oxyrrhodinum, a little
warm, and to leave on it a double cloth soaked in it ; also
on his forehead one with oil of roses and water-lilies and
poppies, with a little opium and rose-vinegar, with a lit-
tle camphor, renewed at times. Moreover, he should
smell flowers of henbane and water-lilies, bruised with
vinegar and rose-water, with a little camphor wrapped
together in a handkerchief, which should be held for a
•'This dose seems somewhat large. As Paget points out, in Park's
time the grain was literally "a barleycorn or grain, and that such as is
neither too dry, nor over-grown with mould, nor rancid, but well-condi-
tioned, and of an indifferent bigness."
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 271
long time against the nose, so that the odor can com-
municate itself to the brain; and these things should be
continued only until the great inflammation and pain
shall be passed, for fear of refrigerating too much the
brain. Furthermore, one should make artificial rain, by
making water run from some high place into a cauldron,
that it may make such a noise that the patient can
hear it; by these means sleep will be provoked in him.
And as to the retraction of his leg there was hope of
correctino; it, when one should have made evacuation
of the pus and other humors contained in the thigh,
which by their extension (made by repletion) have
drawn back the leg, which would remedy itself by first
rubbing all the knee joint with ointment of althea,^*
and oil of lilies, and a little brandy, and putting above
it black wool with the grease in it, likewise by putting
under the knee a feather pillow, folded double, and lit-
tle by little we shall extend his leg.
This my discourse was well approved by the physi-
cians and surgeons.
The consultation ended we went to the patient, and
I made three openings in his thigh, from which went
forth a great quantity of pus and sanies, and at the
same time I took from him some little splinters of bone,
but did not wish to let go forth too great a quantity of
the said sanies for fear of too much exhaustion of his
"^Ointment of mallows.
272 AMBROISE PARE
[vital] forces. Two or three hours afterwards I had a
bed made for him near his own, on which were clean
white sheets ; then a strong man placed him in it and he
was glad to be taken out of his dirty stinking bed. Soon
after he asked to sleep, which he did for near four hours ;
whereat everybody in the house commenced to rejoice,
and especially Monsieur le Due d' Ascot, his brother.
The following days I made injections into the depth
and cavities of the ulcers, composed of aegj'^ptiacum dis-
solved sometimes in brandy, other times in wine. I
applied compresses to the bottom of the sinuses, to
cleanse and dry the spongy soft flesh, and tents of lead
cannulas, for the purpose of always giving issue to the
sanies; and over them a large plaster of diacalcitheos,^^
dissolved in wine. Likewise I bandaged him so dex-
terously that he had no pain, which ceasing the fever be-
gan to diminish very much. Then I made him drink
wine moderately tempered with water, knowing that it
restores and quickens the [vital] forces. And all the
things that we had ordered in the consultation were
accomplished according to their time and order; and
his pains and the fever ceased, he began always to grow
better. He discharged two of his surgeons and one of
his physicians so that we were but three with him.
Now I remained there about two months, and was
*EinpIastrum diacalcitheos was made with oil, litharge and vitriol. It
was astringent and detergent.
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 273
not without seeing many patients, some rich, some poor,
who came to see me from three or four leagues about.
He gave food and drink to the needy, all of whom he
commended to me that I should aid them as a favor
to him. I protest I refused not one, and did for them
all that it was possible, of which he was glad. Then
when I saw that he commenced to be well, I told him he
must have viols and viohns and some comedian to make
him merry, which he did. In one month we had so
wrought that he could sit up in a chair, and had him-
self carried to and fro in his garden, and to the gate
of his chateau to see the people pass. The peasants
for two or three leagues about, knowing that they could
see him, came on fete days to sing and dance, men and
women, pell-mell for a frolic, rejoicing at his good con-
valescence, being all glad to see him, and not without
much laughing and much drinking. He always caused
a hogshead of beer to be given to them, and they drank
all merrily to his health. And the citizens of Mons
in Hainault, and other gentlemen, his neighbors, came
to see him in wonder, as a man coming forth from the
grave ; and from then that he was so well, he was never
without company, and as one went forth, another would
enter to visit him; his table was always well covered.
He was greatly loved by the nobihty and by the com-
mon people, as well for his liberality, as for his beauty
and honesty, having a kind look and a gracious speech,
274 AMBROISE PARE
in such sort that those who saw him were constrained to
love him.
The chief persons of the city of Mons came one Sat-
urday to ask him to permit me to go to Mons where they
had the good will to feast me and make me good cheer
for their love of him. He told them he would pray me
to go, which he did, but I answered him that such great
honor was not due to me, adding also that they could
not give me better cheer than his. And again he prayed
me very affectionately to go there, and that I would
do it for his sake, to which I agreed. The next day
they came to fetch me with two coaches; and having
arrived at Mons we found the dinner ready, and the
chief men of the city with their wives, who awaited me
with good will. We put ourselves at table, and they
placed me at the upper end and all drank to me and
to the health of the Marquis d'Auret, saying that he
was very fortunate, and they likewise, to have found me
to put him on his legs, and to let it be known in this
company how greatly he was honored and loved. After
dinner they brought me back to the Chateau d'Auret,
where Monsieur le Marquis awaited me with great af-
fection to tell him that which we had done at our ban-
quet, where I told him that all the company had drunk
many times to his health.
In six weeks he began to support himself a little on
crutches, and to grow fat, and get a live and natural
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 275
color. He wished to be taken to Beaumont, which is
the dwelling of Monsieur le Due d'Ascot, and had him-
self carried there in a chair with arms, by eight men in
relays, and the peasants of the villages through which
we passed, knowing he was Monsieur le Marquis, fought
with one another to carry him, and constrained us to
drink, but it was only beer, but I believe if they had
wine, even hypocras, they would have given it to us
with a good will. And all were glad to see the Marquis,
and all prayed God for him. Having arrived at Beau-
mont all the people came to meet us, to do him reverence,
and they prayed God he would bless him and keep him
in good health. We entered the chateau where there
were more than fifty gentlemen that Monsieur le Due
d'Ascot had asked to come make good cheer with JNIon-
sieur his brother; and for three whole days he kept
open house. After dinner the gentlemen would run at
the ring, and fight one another with sword arms [fence]
and they rejoiced greatly to see Monsieur d'Auret, be- ^^^ ^^^
cause they had heard that he would never leave his bed tried to get
and be cured of his wound. I was always at the upper drunk by
end of the table, where everybody drank carouses to him ^o,ktng
good cheer
and to me, thinking to make me drunk, which they could
not do, for I drank only as I was accustomed to do. ?y^, ^f
Madame
Some days after we returned from there and I took leave la Duchesse
of Madame la Duchesse d'Ascot, who took a diamond *^°
from her finger, which she gave me in recognition of
276 AMBROISE PARE
my having so well cared for her brother, and the dia-
mond was worth more than fifty crowns. Monsieur
d'Auret was getting better and better, and walked alone
about his garden on crutches. I asked leave of him
divers times to return to Paris, showing him that which
remained to do for his wound could be done by his
physician and surgeon. And to begin to get myself
away from him, I begged him to permit me to go to see
Good mill \\^q ^Jty Qf Antwerp, which he granted me willingly, and
of the
citizens ordered his maitre d'hotel to conduct me there, accom-
of Brussels p^j^-g^j ^^y ^^^ pages. We passed through Malines and
Brussels, where the chief men of the city prayed the
maitre d'hotel to let them know when we should return,
and that they wished to feast me, as had those of Mons.
I thanked them very humbly, saying to them that such
honor was not due to me. I was two days and a half
visiting the city of Antwerp, where some merchants,
knowing the maitre d'hotel, prayed him he would let
them have the honor of giving us a dinner or a supper.
It was who should have us, and they were all very glad
to hear of the good health of Monsieur d'Auret, making
me more honor than I asked. At last we came back to
find Monsieur le Marquis making good cheer, and five
or six days after I demanded leave to go from him,
which he granted me, with great regret (so he said)
and gave me a worthy present of great value, and had
APOLOGY AND TREATISE 277
me again conducted by the maitre d'hotel with two
pages to my house in Paris.
I have neglected to say that the Spaniards have
since ruined and demolished his Chateau d'Auret, and
sacked, pillaged, and burned all the houses and villages
belonging to him, because he would not be of their
wicked party in their assassinations and ruin of the
Low Countries.^^
I have published this Apology, to the end that every-
one should know on what footing I have always
marched, and I think there is no man so touchy that he
cannot take in good part that which I have said, since
my discourse is true, and that the effect is to show the
thing to the eye, the reason being my guaranty against
all calumnies.
°°In the edition of his works published in his lifetime Pare places after
this the accounts of the Journey to Bourges, the Battle of Saint Denis,
and the Journey to Bayonne. I have thought it better to give them in
their chronological sequence.
End of the Apology (| Journeys
INDEX
Abbeville, 238.
Abbey of Saint Arnold, 210.
Abscess formation, 265.
in the internal organs, 81.
in the throat, 255.
Adenoid complication in death of
Francois II, 110.
^gyptiacum for dressing wounds,
242, 272
^gineta, Paulus, 146, 147, 148,
149.
Aetius, 146, 148, 152.
d'Albon, Jacques, 183.
d'Albret, Charlotte, 168.
d'Albret, Isabelle, 168.
d'Albret, Jeanne, 190, 245, 248.
Albucasis, 146, 147, 148.
Alciat, 155.
d'Alechamp, 134.
Alexipharmical property of uni-
corn's horn, 119.
Almonds, 215.
Alopecia, pun on, 96.
Alsace and Lorraine, 182.
Althea, ashes of, 271.
Alva, General, 81, 182, 202, 203,
255.
d'Amboise, Bussy, incident regard-
ing, 105.
Amboise, Peace of, 70.
Ambrosia, pun on, 105.
America, history of, 210.
Amiens, journ^ to, 244.
Amputation by use of the ligature,
46, 47.
examples of, 139, 140, 141, 189.
of arms and legs, 242.
of Coligny's arm, 83.
of epiploon, 134.
of leg of Toussaint Posson, 141.
performed upon Jean Bousserau,
143.
Amusements of peasants, 273.
"Anatomic Universelle," pu})lication
of, 65.
Anatomy, knowledge of, by barber-
surgeons, 18.
of VesaJius, 112.
Pare studies, 30, 43.
publication of work on, 43.
reference concerning, aponeuroses
of muscles, 130, 131, 265.
arterial vein, 224.
azygos vein, 228.
basilic vein, 222.
brain, sixth conjugation from,
223.
chyle, 266.
diaphragm, blood on, 223.
diastole of arteries, 267.
fundament, 150.
infibulare, 149.
lungs, action of, 223.
milk, origin of, 228.
OS astragalus, 139.
spinal cord, functions of, 257.
systole of arteries, 267.
stomach, 148, 150.
thorax, 222, cavity of, 222.
varicose vein, 231.
ventricle of the brain, 175.
Anchovy, 204.
Andelot, 240.
Andreas, John, k Cruce, 134.
Andromachus, 269.
Anesthesia accompanying leprosy,
14.
Angers, beggar at, 12.
Angiology, 147.
d'Angoiil^me, Diane, 197.
Animals, treatise on, 113.
d'Anjou, Due, 258.
d'Annebaut, Marechal, 30, 167, 174.
Antidote, 73.
bezoar stone as, 109.
oil as, 65.
279
28o
INDEX
Antidote, unicorn's horn as, 115.
universal. 111.
Antimony, suppression of passage
on, 113.
use of, 91, 109.
Antwerp, 76, 237, 276.
d'An\il]e, 197.
"Apologie et Traite Contenant les
Voyages Faits en Divers
Lieux," 4.
Apologj% 129.
Aponeuroses of the muscles, 130,
131.
trauma in, 265.
Apothecaries, 197, 198.
Apprenticeship under barber-sur-
geon, 19.
Arcabuto, 156.
de Argellata, Pierre, 134,
Archagelus, 156.
Aristotle, 155.
Armaments, kinds of, 200,
See also Weapons.
Armeniac, 269.
d'Armenonville, Seigneur, 197.
Army formation, 182.
Aromatic compound, use of, 79.
Arquebus a croc, 206.
Arquebus wounds, treatment of, 28,
29, 41, 245, 262.
Arquebusiers, 205.
d'Arschot, Due, 75, 260.
Duchesse, present of, 76, 275.
Arterial vein, 224.
Arteriotomy, 146.
Artificial rain to induce sleep, 270.
Artillery attacks, 199, 201, 217,
237.
Ascites, 148.
d'Ascot, Due, 260, 262, 264, 272,
275.
Asses, as food, 205.
Asthmatics, 147.
Astrological influence, evidence of,
113.
Atrophy, presence of, 266.
d'Aubigne, 9.
de Aumalle, 183.
AureHanus, Celius, 148.
d'Auret, Marquis, 75, 261, 274.
treatment for, 75.
Autopsy on Charles IX, 104,
a criminal, 65.
Autopsy on King of Navarre, 69.
Monsieur de Martigues, 228.
the wrestler, 173.
Avesnes, 168.
Avicenna, 132, 152.
Avignon, 106.
Azygos vein, 228.
Bacon, 204.
le Balafre, 180.
Balm for dressing woimxis, 29.
BaJzac, 61.
Bandaging, method of, 232.
Baptism in Catholic faith, 84.
Bar-le-Duc, 66.
Barbarity, example of, 254.
Barber-surgeon, examination for,
25, 30.
Barber-surgeons, community of, 15,
30.
duties and opportunities of, 16.
as prosectors, 18, 19.
Barley broth as food, 224.
Barley water, 215, 270.
Barricade of casks, 191.
Barricades, 205.
du Bartas, quotation from, 145.
Bartholinus, Thomas, 119.
Basilic vein, 222.
de Bassompierre, Christophe, 258,
261.
Fran9ois, sister of, 258.
wound of, 75, 260.
Marshal, 258.
memoirs of, 261.
Bastile, de Vendome's commitment
to, 198.
Batifol, 246.
Battalia, 208.
de Bauge, Monsieur, incident of,
197, 235, 236, 237.
Bavaria, play on the word baver, 96.
Bayonne, journey to, 255.
Beans, 204.
Beaumont, 274.
de Beauyau, Isabelle, 193.
Bee de corbin, 134.
Beef and bacon, horse meat for,
201.
Bedsore, cause of, 266.
Beef, 204.
Beggar, incident of, 12.
Beggars, stories regarding, 109.
INDEX
281
Belief, Fare's religious, 84
du Bellai, Cardinal, 17.
Bellows, 150.
Belly, openings in, 148, 150.
Benevolence, evidences of Park's, 7.
Benzo, the Milanese, 210.
Beverages, brandy, 70, 271, 272.
wine, 231.
Bezoar stone, incident of, 63, 109.
Biarritz, 73, 193.
Bibliotheque Nationale, 89.
Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve, 66.
de Biron, 197.
Birth, date of, 10.
Birthplace, 10.
Biscuit, 204.
Bladder, stones similar to those in,
256.
Blanc-mange, 215.
Blasphemy, defense against, 109.
Bleeding, 19, 222, 231.
excessive, in fever, 256.
Blois, 180.
Blood-letting, 222.
Bodkin, use of, 223.
Boettes, 205. ^
Bohemians, 208.
du Bois, Guillaume, 258.
le Bois-Dauphin, corpse of, 242.
Boistau, 109.
de Boisy, Sieur, 183.
Bone splinters, 221, 271.
Bones as food, 124.
Bonesetters, 16.
Bonfires to purify the air, 78.
Bonnivet, 197.
laBordaille, 198.
des Bordes, 252.
Borgueil, the wounded at, 75.
du Bouchet, Monsieur, 230.
de Bouillon, 213, 216.
taking of Monsieur, 219.
Boullaie, Marie, 97.
Robert, 97.
Boulogne, 180.
journey to, 179.
siege of, 42.
de Bourbon, Antoine, 47, 190, 248.
Cardinal, 249.
Charles, 22, 159, 193.
Jean II, 193.
Louis, 193.
de Bourdeville, Seigneur, 241.
de Bourdillon, 246.
Bourg Hersent, 10.
Bourgeois, Louise, 100, 101.
claim of, 93.
Bourges, journey to, 246.
siege of, 69.
Bourgueil, 259.
Bousserau, Jean, 143.
Bouterone, Francois, 97.
Brain, sixth conjugation from, 223.
wound in the left ventricle of, 175.
Brantome, 9, 88, 159.
Brandenbourg, Marquis of, 208.
Brandy, 271.
as a dressing for wounds, 70.
as a solvent, 272.
Bread for invalid diet, 270.
Breast, cautery on, 148.
swollen, operation for, 148.
de Bressure, Mademoiselle, 237.
Brest, 169.
Brignolles, 159.
de Brion, Catherine, 39.
Hilaire, 97.
de Brissac, Monsieur, 40, 174.
de Brosse, Charlotte, 197.
Jean, 168.
Broth, 215.
use of, 270.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 119.
Brussels, 76, 276.
de Bruyeres, Seigneur, 102.
Burgundy, Duchy of, 22.
Burial of the dead, 210,
Burial of Pare in the Catholic
faith, 84.
Bums, old woman's treatment for,
29.
Butter, 204.
Calamine, 269.
Callosity, absorption of, 132.
of ulcer border, 231.
Calmetheus, 133.
Cambrai, Peace of, 23, 158.
Camomile, 268.
Camp followers, firing upon, 213.
Camphor, 269, 270.
Camus, Jean, 101.
Camusat, 77.
Cancer of the breast, impostor
feigns, 13.
Cardan, 109.
282
INDEX
Caries, 139, 264.
Carouge, 197
Carrots, 204.
Casks as moat fillers, 191
Castellan, 255.
Cataplasm, 152.
Cataract, operations for, 113.
Caterpillars and grasshoppers, sol-
diers compared to, 203.
"Catherine de Medici" of Balzac, 61.
Catholic victorj^ at Dreux, 252.
wars, 246.
Catholicism, 80, 109
Cats as food, 205.
on spikes, taunted by, 200,
Cauterization, 130, 137, 268.
condemned, 189.
for empj'ema, 147.
for hemorrhage, 46.
for gunshot wounds, 162.
of liver and spleen, 148.
ridiciUe of, 214.
vs ligature, 156.
Cavalry charge at Metz, 201.
Celsus, Cornelius, 133, 138, 147, 149,
152, 154.
Cemetery of the Holy Innocents, 209.
Ceratum refrigerans, 269.
Chalons, 182.
Chapelain, 116.
Jean, 255.
de la Chapelle, aux Ursins, 197.
Gautier, Seigneur, 197.
Charbonnel, 99
Jean, 139, 142.
Charbons, 256.
Charity, example of, 28.
of the author, act of, 7, 45, 184.
Charles V, Emperor, 22, 23, 119,
158, 178, 182, 190, 213.
attack of, 24.
on Metz, 48.
on Saint Quentin, 240.
decision of, 207.
surgeons of, 220.
Charles IX, 2, 4, 33, 69, 70, 73, 81,
82, 88, 110, 116, 140, 143, 175,
245, 249, 252, 255, 258, 261,
262.
accession of, 61, 62.
death of, 104.
obstinacy of, 74.
petition to, 76.
Charles, M. Pierre, wife of, 102.
Charonne, 100.
Chartel, Captain, 183.
de Chartres, Vidame, 197.
du Chastel, Honore, 255.
de Chastillon, 179, 182.
Chateau d'Auret, 75, 262.
demolition of, 277.
Chateau le Comte, 190.
fall of the, 192.
Chateau Gaillard, 251.
Chateau de la Motte au Bois, 235,
236, 237.
Chateau de Villaine, 161.
de Chauliac, Gui, 112, 133.
textbook of, 19.
Cheeses, 204.
Cheliodonia, 269.
Chestnut bark, 269.
Chirurgien at the Hotel Dieu, 20.
Choleric temperament, 231.
Chyle, 266.
Circulation of blood and "spirits,"
massage for stimulation of,
266.
Cicatrization, complete, of ulcer,
234.
Cleanliness, as mark of refinement,
235.
value of, in treating gangrenous
condition, 267.
Clement VII, Pope, 111, 115, 158.
Clement, Jacques, 122.
Cleret, Etienne, 39.
Marguerite, 39.
de Cleves, Duke, marriage of, 159.
Clinical examination of the wounds
of Monsieur de Martigues,
221.
Clyster, 150.
Cointeret, Jean, 144, 253.
Cold cream, 269.
Coligny, Gaspard, Admiral, 2, 3,
70, 82, 159, 182, 246, 258.
capture of, 240.
death of, 85.
murder of, 84.
quotation from life of, 62, 87,
180.
shooting of, 82.
College de Saint Come, 104, 106.
membership in the, 53.
testimony of the, 107.
INDEX
283
Colot, Lawrence, performs lithot-
omy, 12.
Colots, operations of the, 96.
Come, Fr^re, lithotomist, 16.
Community of Barber-surgeons, 15,
30. '
Comperat, accusation of, 11, 130,
123.
Compajrnon chirurgien at the
Hotel Dieu, 20.
Compress, application of, 270.
on varicose vein, 232.
de Conde, Prince, 48, 62, 70, 82, 193,
2-t6, 248, 252, 257.
trial of, 62.
Confrerie de Saint Come, 15.
controversy over the rank of,
54.
Conserve of roses. 111.
Consumption, 267.
Contracture of arm, treatment of,
73.
Convulsion, 136.
Corrosive sublimate, given to a
criminal, 108.
poisoning by, 65.
de Cosse, Charles, Comte de Brissac,
174.
Cough, purpose of, 224.
Couquet, 169.
Courtin, 142.
Coverlets on camp beds, 211.
Cows, salted, 204.
tainted, as food, 215.
de Croy, Charles Philippe, 261.
Crozon, 169.
Cruciform incision, 148.
Cruelty, example of, 219.
of Spaniards, 210.
Cuboide, 139.
de Culan, capture of, 219.
Ctesias, description of unicorn by,
119.
Culverin, 186.
Daigne, 194.
Danvilliers, 182, 188.
journey to, 186.
siege of, 46.
Dardelot, fort of, 179.
Dativo, wrestler, 171.
Dauphigne, governor of, 193.
de Dauphin, 183.
Dauphin, Monsieur le, surgeon of,
175.
Death, verse on, 81.
of Pare, L'Estoile's recora of, 10.
Demons, presence of, 94.
Denbray, Claude, wife of, 102.
Devils in the air, 94.
Diacalcitheos, plaster of, 272.
Diachylon, plaster of, 222.
Diane de France, child of Henri II,
44.
Diastole of arteries, absorption of
vapors by, 267.
Diathesia, 267.
Diaphragm, blood on, 223.
Diet, 270.
barley water, 215, 224, 270,
bread, 270.
broth, 215, 270.
jellies and dainties, 50, 215.
meats, 270.
nuts. 111.
sauces, 270.
soup, 224.
wine, 272.
see also Food.
Dieting by proxy, 226.
Dioscorides, 149.
Disguise of Pare, 218, 244.
Disease, abscess of the throat,
255.
dropsy, 148.
dysentery, 174.
empyema, 228.
epilepsy, 263, 265.
fever, 136, 263, 265, 272.
haematuria, 174.
paralysis from pistol wound, 257.
pleurisy, 228.
quartan fever, 245.
Disinfection of filthy ulcer, 232.
Dislocation of the vertebrae, 149.
Dislocations, reduction of, 16, 121,
125.
Distemperature, 231.
Distillations, 113.
"Dix Livres de La Chirurgie," pub-
lication of, 47.
Dogs as food, 205.
Domfront, 246.
de Doue, Seigneur, 197.
Doulac, 169.
Dourlan (Doullens), 244.
284
INDEX
Dowry of Jacqueline Rousselet, 97.
of Jeanne Pare, 99.
Dressing, Coligny's wound, 182.
ulcer, method of, 233.
time element involved, 234.
wounds, in the left ventricle, 176.
of captured soldiers, 210.
of Monsieur de Martigues, 224.
of soldiers, 218.
Dressings, condition of, 915.
Dreux, Battle of, 183, 252.
mortality at, 92.
•victory at, 70.
Dropsy, 148.
Drouet, Loys, 38.
Drugs, distributed among the sur-
geons and apothecaries, 198.
poisoned, 194.
See Therapeutics.
Dysentery, 174.
Earthworms as dressing for wounds,
29, 163.
Edema of leg, cause of, 266.
Education of Par6, 11, 12, 14, 15.
Eggs for dressing wounds, 27, 163,
222.
Egyptiacum as dressing for wounds,
69.
d'Elboeuf, Due, 101.
Elbow joint, result of setting of,
261.
Elephants' tusks as mimimy, 114.
Elizabeth, daughter of Henri II,
115.
Queen, 246.
Electuary of Maximilian, 119.
Elian, horn in, 119.
Emaciation in case of the Due
d'Auret, 263.
Embalming, 113.
body of, Charles IX, 104.
Monsieur de Martigues, 51,
226, 229.
Emetics, 111.
Empirical practitioners, 16.
Emplastruin diacalcitheos, 272.
Empyema, 147, 228.
Emulgent vein, 228.
Enemata, 111.
d'Enghien, Due, 48, 193.
English, defeat of, 254.
forces of, in Normandy, 252.
English, invasion by, accoimt of, 169.
withdrawal of, 179.
Epilepsy, 263.
cause of, 265.
elk's hoofs for, 119.
Epiploon, 134.
Erosion, 137.
Escharotic medicaments, 137, 232.
described by Mesne, 232.
ingredients, 232.
d'Esquetot, Charlotte, 174.
d'Estampes, Due, 40, 168, 173, 237.
Duchesse, 159.
d'Est6, Anne, 99, 193.
d'Estres, 198, 238.
Etienne, Charles, book on anatomy
published by, 54.
d'Eu, Comte, 252.
Evelyn, John, 269.
Examination, for barber-surgeon,
necessity for passing, 25.
for master barber-surgeon, 30.
physical, of the Due d'Auret, 262.
Exercise, 267.
Excrements, retention of, 257.
Exodus, sorcerers condemned in,
94.
Experience vs. science, 155.
Eyes, fluxion of the, 146.
Faculty de mddecine, 15, 107, 113.
action of, against Fare's works,
106.
approval required of the. 111.
attack by, 89.
controversy with, 76.
opposition of, 120.
Park's influence with, 53.
records of, 30.
translations of, 16.
Fagon, Felix, 77.
Faking of beggars, 96.
Famese, Horace, 197.
Fascines, 191.
Femoral bone, splintering of, 252.
Fernel, counsels of, 44.
Fete days of the peasants, 272.
Fever, 136, 256, 265, 272.
as cause of parched tongue, 267.
in case of the Due d'Auret, 263.
seizure by, 223.
Fevers, 113.
book on, 106.
INDEX
285
Fevers, purpose of book on, 112.
Figs, drv', 111.
Fish, 204.
Fistulas of the fundament, 150.
Flanders, journey to, 262.
tour of, 76.
Flies, "procreated" in cadavers,
243.
Flood, threatened, 177.
Flux, 256.
Fluxions of the eyes, 146.
Focil, great and little, 139.
de Foix, Claude, 168.
Odet, 168.
Fomentations, application of, 268.
de Fontaine, 256.
Food, almonds, 215.
blanc-mange, 215.
bones, 124.
butter, 204.
cheeses, 204.
figs, dry. 111.
gravies, 215.
meats, asses, 205.
bacon, 204.
beef, 204.
cats, 205.
cows, salted, 204.
cows, tainted, 204, 215.
dogs, 205.
hams, Mayence, 204.
highly seasoned, 231.
horses, 204, 205.
leather, 205.
rats, 205.
nutmeg, 204.
prunes, 205, 215, 224.
vegetables, 204.
beans, 204.
carrots, 204.
garlic, 204.
leeks, 204.
onions, 204.
peas, 204.
radishes, 204.
rice, 204.
vinegar, 232.
See also Diet.
Forest, Francois, 99.
Francois, Junior, 99.
le Fou, 169.
Fracture, of the knee, 262.
of leg, 6.
Fracture, of leg, setting of, 49.
sustained by Pare, 66.
of skull, trephining a, 49.
sustained by Henri II, 58.
Fractures, dressing for, 19.
treatment of, 16.
de France, Diane, child of Henri II,
44.
Francois I, 1, 2, 22, 23, 41, 115,
158, 175, 182.
army of, 178.
death of, 44.
establishment of school of surgery
by, 17.
Francois II, 2, 3, 81, 110.
accession to the throne of, 61.
death of, 61, 62.
Fran9ois II, of Luxembourg, 197.
French army, formation of, 182.
French language vs. Latin for pur-
pose of worship, 91.
language, use of in Fare's works,
110.
Fundament, 150.
Gabions, 206, 254.
Galen, 41, 43, 130, 131, 132, 136,
137, 146, 149, 152, 222, 228,
269.
method of, for dressing ulcer,
233.
translation of, 16.
"Gall stones" in tongue swelling,
256.
de Ganappe, Sieur, 183.
Gangrene, 136, 140, 143, 268.
presence of, in wounds, 242.
in wound in arm, 250.
Garlic, 204.
Gastroenteritis, 65.
"Generation," book on, 122.
spontaneous, incident attributed
to, 37.
Genitalia, soldiers hung by, 219.
Germaine, story of the change of
sex of, 33, 95.
Germans, 208.
Germany, Fare's journey to, 45,
182.
Gesner, 109.
Gilbert, Maitre, 248.
medical opinion of, 249.
Ginger, 204.
286
INDEX
Gobel, Jean, innkeeper, 142,
de Goguier, 182.
letter of, 239.
Gouast, Captain, 244.
Gourmelen, Etienne, 106, 122.
attack by, 25, 120.
attack upon, 8.
Gourmeleni, Stephani, 130,
"Grand Appareil," 12.
le Grand, Monsieur, 164.
Grangier, M., 116.
Grasshoppers and cockchafers, sol-
diers compared to, 203.
Gravelines, governor of, 230.
Gravies, 215.
Gregory XIII, 84.
Grenade, explosion of, 216,
Grenades, 205.
du Guast, Marquis, 158.
del Guasto, 158.
Guillemeau, Jacques, 93, 100, 103,
120, 142, 143.
Guillemot, M., 101.
de Guise, Cardinal, 99, 180, 241.
Francois, Due de Lorraine, 48,
81, 84, 99, 180, 182, 183, 186,
187, 193, 194, 195, 197, 198,
199, 207, 208, 210, 238, 344,
249, 252, 261.
murder of, 70.
strategy of, 201,
wife of, 99,
wounds of, 42, 180, 259,
Henry, 99, 180.
Guises, 1, 2, 178, 246.
conspiracy against, 198, .
influence of, 61, 62.
presence of the, 82.
Gimpowder, from Sedan, 189.
used as explosive, 192.
Guy XV, 168.
Guyard, groom of the King's cham-
ber, 187.
Haddock, 204.
Haematuria, case of, 39, 174.
Haemorrhage, 133, 134, 140,
cautery to check, 46.
following a bullet wound, 224.
Latin charm to check, 94.
Hainault, Mons in, 262, 273.
Hams, Mayence, 204.
Haultin, 100.
Havre de Grace, 254.
Heart, weakness of the, 223, 263.
Heat, treatment with, 268.
Hedelin, Claude, 31.
death of, 103.
Helin, 140.
Henbane, 270.
Henri II, 3, 47, 57, 115, 158, 159,
175, 182, 245, 246, 255.
as hostage, 23.
death of, 58.
dedication to, 45.
personality of, 44.
reward from, 52.
Henri III, 2, 4, 22, 104, 105, 110,
143, 180, 198, 245.
ascension to the throne of, 104.
death of, 122.
Henri IV, 1, 22, 122, 143, 190, 238,
244, 245.
Henry VIII, 22, 23, 158,
Hepatic flux, 29, 164.
Herbs, see Therapeutics.
Hernia, operating for, 16,
Herrings, 204.
Herve, Pierre, 139.
Hery, Thierry de, 31,
dissection with, 43.
Heri, Theodorico de, 30.
Hesdin, 190, 197, 235, 236.
account of the fall of, 191,
238.
journey to, 213.
Hippocrates, 110, 130, 132, 136, 140,
149, 150, 152, 218, 228, 232.
translation of, 16, 32.
Hollier, 133.
Home of Pare, location of, 32.
Honey and alum for dressing
wounds, 69.
Horace, 156.
Horace, Duke, 197, 213.
death of, 217.
Horse meat for beef and bacon,
201,
Horses as food, 204, 205.
Hospital, improvised field, 214.
d'Hostel, Marie, 139.
Hotel Dieu, 31, 78, 151, 167, 198.
history of, 20.
Pare's training at, 19, 21.
term at the, 30.
Hubert, Richard, 66, 101, 253.
INDEX
287
Huguenot, chapel at Angers, 12.
leaders, 193.
party, 82, 182.
poisoned as, 109.
taunt of, 246.
wars, 246.
Huguenotism, 3.
Huguenots, 80.
defeat of, 252.
at Moncontour, 258.
at Saint Denis, 257.
war against the, 70.
d'Hiuneires, Madame, 115.
Humerus, ustion upon, 149.
Humor, glairy, of yellow color,
256.
pituitous, 263.
vicious, 149.
Hungarian queen, 237.
Huron, Mathurin, 139.
Hyacinth, 119.
Hygiene and quarantine, advocacy
of, 78.
Hypospadias, 45.
Imperialists, retreat of, 24, 208.
Impostor, incident of a Spanish, 51,
225.
Impostors, incidents of, 13, 14.
Imprisonment with the Spaniards,
52.
"Incisors," skill of, 16.
Incision to evacuate pus, 268.
Incubi, 94.
Indians, American, 210.
Infantry attack at Theroiienne, 213.
Infection, ideas on, 69, 78, 204, 267.
Infibulare, 149.
Inflammation, 265.
cause of, 224.
treatment for, '2'2'2.
Iron for cauterization, 131.
Italy, expedition into, 24, 31.
Jacques, Frere, Uthotomist, 16.
James V of Scotland, 180.
de Jarnac, 183.
Jarnac, Battle of, 193, 261.
Jaundice cured by spell, 94.
Jellies, 215.
and dainties of "mon petite
niaistre," 50.
Jerusalem, 207.
Johnson's translation of Fare's
work, 15.
de Joinville, Prince, 180.
"Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris
sous le Regne de Francois I,"
6.
Knee joint, trauma in, 265.
Knee, arquebus wound causing
fracture of, 2G2.
Knife, simile of, 156.
Labor, artificial, by manual means,
92.
La Fere, 241, 242.
death of d'Annebaut at, 167.
Pare remains at, 57.
La Fere-en-Tardenois, 240.
Laflaie, 142.
Lallemant, Antoinette, 102.
Etienne, 39.
Jean, 102.
Lambert, Nicole, 39.
"La Method de Traicter," etc., pub-
lication of, 41.
Landanec, 169.
Landrecy, victualing, 41.
Landreceis, 178.
Landreneau, 169.
Lannoy, 22.
La Noiie, 9, 143.
Lansquenets, 161.
Larks, 204.
Latin language, use of, by physi-
cians, 16.
translation of Fare's works, 119.
de Lautrec, Seigneur, 168.
Laval, birthplace of Pare. 10.
de Laval, 41, 168, 170, 173.
Lavender, 268.
Lavernault, Nicole, 175.
Lavernot, Nicole, 70.
Lead, application of, 232.
Leaguers, 122. ^
Leather as food, 205.
Le Charron, Madame la Marquise,
31, 103.
Leeks, 204.
Le Fevre, Charles, 250.
Le Fort, 143.
Le Juge, ligature performed upon,
144.
Le Faulmier (the physician), at-
tack upon, 92.
288
INDEX
Le Paulmier (Park's biographer),
4, 5, 30, 31, 37, 41, 76, 89,
98, 99, 103, 107, 141, 245.
Leprosy, impostor feigns, 14.
Le Rat, Captain, 159.
de Leschena], Leonard, 141.
L'Estoile, Pierre, 37.
journal of, 6, 124.
de Lestre, Balthasar, 141.
Leviticus, sorcerers condemned in,
94.
Liebault, Jean, 139.
"Life of Admiral Coligny," incident
from, 42.
Ligaments, trauma in, 265.
Ligature, 133, 134, 136, 144.
amputation by use of, 46.
compared with cauterization, 156.
discussion on the use of, 47, 131.
for fistula of the fundamenj;, 132.
of vessels by Gaspard Martin, 11.
Pare's use of the, 25, 122.
Literature on Pare, 4.
Litharge, 269, 272.
Lithotomists, monks as, 16.
Lithotomy performed by Colot, 12.
Liver, cauterization of, 148.
Localization of bullet in Monsieur
de Brissac, 39.
Park's method for, 175.
Lopez, the Spaniard, 210.
L'Orfevre, Anne, 197.
Lorraine and Alsace, 182.
de Lorraine, Cardinal, 241.
Charles, due d'Elboeuf, 101.
Marie, 180.
Louis XI, 1.
Louis XII, 22.
Louvre, 182.
threat to storm, 83.
Lower Brittainy, 168
dances of, 170.
journey to, 40.
de Lude, Comte, 197.
Lungs, action of, 223.
bone, splinters in, 221.
bullet shot in, 217.
enlargement of injured, 224.
wounding of, 223.
Luxembourg, 258.
de Luxembourg, Charles, 197.
marriage of, 168.
Madeline, 197.
Lycosthenes, 37.
Lyons, Archbishop of, 124.
Gulf of, 174.
Mad dogs, bites of, 110.
Magna opera published in 1575, 65.
de Magnane, dressing the broken
leg of- 196.
Maine, province of, 10.
Maison de la Vache, 37.
Malgaigne, 4, 12, 18, 20, 31, 41,
42, 46, 62, 63, 66, 81, 89, 91,
93, 96, 101, 105, 107, 112, 122,
130, 132, 160, 180.
Malines, 76, 276.
Malvoisie, 111.
Malzieu, Andre, charge by, 107.
Mammary veins, 228.
de Mansfeld, Peter Ernest, 258.
Mansfield, Count of, 74, 75, 101,
174, 259, 260.
Marchant, 100.
de la Marck, Guilliaume, 190.
Mareschal, Jacques, 103.
Marguerite, Archduchess, 23.
Mariano Sancto, practice of lithot-
omy by, 12.
Marie, incident of changing of sex
of, 33.
Marolles, 168, 174.
journey to, 40.
Marseilles, fortification of, 24.
de Martigues, Comte, 197, 220, 236.
capture of, 219.
wound of, 50, 217.
Martin, Didier, wife of, 102.
Gaspard, barber-surgeon, 11, 39,
120.
Mary Queen of Scots, 3, 61, 180.
de Mas, controller of Posts, 143.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 2, 3,
80, 81, 83, 84, 140, 182, 255.
inception of, 255.
Massage to stimulate circulation,
266.
Materia medica, see Therapeutics.
Maurevel, 182.
Maurevert, servant of the Guises,
83.
Maximilian, Emperor, 119.
Mazelin, Antoine, property of, 38,
39.
Jean, father-in-law of Pare, 31.
INDEX
289
Mazeljn, Jeanne, death of, 97.
gift to, 97.
marriage, 31, 168.
Meat, pressed, 215.
for invalid diet, 270.
highly seasoned, 231.
de Medici, Catharine, 2, 4, 74, 78,
111, 113, 115, 143, 158, 193,
197, 246, 249, 252, 258, 259.
menage of, 44.
machinations of, 81.
views of Balzac on, 61, 78.
Medicine and surgery, interrelation-
ship of, 112.
See Therapeutics.
Melilot, 268.
Mendoza, 124.
Menecrates, 222.
Mercurial ointment for alopecia,
96.
Merimee, Prosper, 8.
Mesnager, Nicolas, 143.
Metaphysics, 155.
Metastases of internal organs, 81.
Metz, 182, 183, 195, 197, 208.
experiences at the siege of, 48.
journey to, 193.
Meudon, 32.
incident of life at, 37.
property at, 8.
Mezeray, 9.
"Miaut, miaut, miaut," 200.
Midwives, skill of, 16.
Migraines, 146.
Jlilan physician, 29, 164.
Military surgeon at Turin, Par6 as,
24.
Milk evacuation through the womb,
228.
Mine of gunpowder, 192.
Mithridatium, 111.
Molluscs, 204.
Moncontour, 74, 258.
Mons, 75, 262, 273, 2T4.
Monster births, causes of, 94.
descriptio^n of, 95.
"Monsters,"' book of, tells of arm-
less man, 34.
incident of Marie Germaine from
book of, 33.
Monsters, causes of, 93.
reference to, 109.
Mojitagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 63.
Montaigne, 2, 32, 33, 90, 95, 158.
Montbazon, Duchess of, 100.
de Montejan, Rene, 24, 29, 30, 159.
164, 167.
death of, 30, 167.
wife of, 101.
de Montespedon, Phillipe, duchesse
de Beaupreau, 101, 159.
Montgomery (Gabriel de), Comte
de Lorges, kiUs Henri II,
58, 246.
Montluc, 9.
de Montmorenci, Anne de, 2, 23,
24, 57, 70, 74, 81, 115, 159,
161, 168, 182, 187, 197, 240,
247, 252, 257, 259.
Louise, 182.
Montpellier, 70.
surgeons of, 16.
de Montpensier, 193.
Princesse, 142.
Mortality, causes of, 211.
at Dreux and St. Denis, 92.
in contused wounds, 249.
Moses, laws of, on sexual hygiene,
94.
Moulambert, 179.
Mountebank without arms, incident
of, 33.
Moussey, M. Vincent, 102.
Mucosities, 149.
Mules as food, 205.
Mummy, definition of, 114.
discourse on, 114.
questions of Christophe des
Ursins regarding, 197.
Munitions, tj'pes of, 169.
Murder of Coligny, 84.
Muscles, laceration of rib, 223.
trauma in, 265.
Music of Low Brittainy, 170
to stimulate patient's interest, 273
Myrtle, 269.
Nantes, 98.
Mountebank without arms, born
at, 34.
Narwhal e, teeth of, 119.
Nausea, cause of, 265.
Navarre, Henri, King of, 47, 73,
110, 122, 168, 190.
death of, 23, 69.
marriage of, 82.
290
INDEX
Navarre, Henri, King of, wound of,
248, 260.
Navarre, Marguerite of, 2, 159.
Kingdom of, 22.
Navel, cautery about the, 148.
de Navieres, Anne, 104,
de Nemours, 193.
Nero, Emperor, 269.
Neurological symptoms, 257, 267.
Nerval herbs, application of, 268.
Nerve of the sixth conjugation, 223,
descending from the sacrum, 149,
Nerves, involvement of, 139, 267,
Nightshade, juice of, 232.
Nomenclature of diseases from
saints, 109,
Notre Dame, Cathedral de, boy
learns French at, 153.
wedding at the, 82.
Nutmeg, 204.
Nuts, 111.
Oak ashes, 268.
bark, 269. ^
"Observations diverses sur la steri-
lite, perte de fruict," 100.
Obstetrics, practiced by midwives,
16.
artificial labor by manual means,
92,
monstrous births, causes of, 94.
podalic version, 44.
section on, 44,
treatise on, 92.
Oil, 204, 272.
administration of, internally. 111.
as a poison antidote, 65.
boiling, for gunshot wounds, 27,
28.
of elder for cautery, 162.
of lilies, as dressing for wounds,
2*9, 163, 271.
puppies boiled in, 29.
of roses for dressing wounds, 27,
163.
of Venice for dressing wounds,
29.
Ointment, red, 269.
of roses, 269.
Onions, 204.
raw, for bums, 29.
Operation, for* cataract, 113.
for- elbow joint, 261.
Operation, for hernia, 16.
for splintered bone, 260.
for stone, 12.
for swollen breast, 148,
Opium, 270.
Organist at Notre Dame, incident
of, 153.
Orleans, 61.
Os astragalus, 139.
Osier, Sir William, copy of "An-
atomie UniverseUe" owned
by, 66.
Ottoviano da Villa, teacher of
Colot, 12.
Oxycrate, 232, 269.
compresses of, 222,
Oxyrrhodinum, 270,
Paget, Stephen, life of Pare, by,
5, 246, 255.
Pain, cause of, 223,
prostration by, 267,
"Paix aux Dames," 23.
Paracelsus, 112.
Paley, Chateau de, 32.
Paracentesis, 148.
Paradis, le petit, 179.
Paralysis due to pistol wounds, 257.
Pare, Ambroise, death of, 126,
the son, 101.
death of, 103,
Anne, 99, 100,
Bertrand, 104.
Catherine, 11, 31, 39, 97, 102,
as godmother, 102.
baptism of, 39, 102.
marriage of, 99.
Frangois, baptism of, 38.
Isaac, baptism of, 39.
Jacqueline, baptism of, 102.
burial of, 102.
Jean, surgeon, 11, 96, 98,
cabinet maker, 11,
death of, 104,
Jeanne, 97, 98.
Parentage of Pare, 10.
Paris, 15, 39, 122, 124, 204, 246.
Parlement, decision of. 111.
decree of, 106.
pamphlet addressed to, 107.
session before, 107.
Partridges, 204.
Pas de Suze, engagement at, 24.
INDEX
291
Passevolants, 178.
Paul of ^gina, translation of, 16,
147, 148.
Paulain, singer at Notre Dame,
140.
Pavia, 167.
disaster at, 2, 22.
Peace of Amboise, 70.
Pefice of Cambrai, 23.
Peas, 204.
Penal methods, example of, 14.
Pepper, 204.
Perfumes as poisons. 111.
Peripatetics, 16.
Periscvthismos, 147.
Perpignan, Siege of, 39, 168, 174.
Pescara, 158.
Pestilence, cause of, 243.
Peyrilh6, 245.
Phllibert, Emmanuel, 213.
Philip II, 84.
Phlegmonous distemperature, 231.
Phthisis, 104.
Physique, 6.
Picardy, expedition into, 47.
Piedmont, 164, 167.
girl, incident of, 162.
Prince of, 217.
de Pienne, 198.
Pietre, Simon, 140.
Piety, evidences of, 7.
Pigray, Pierre, 253, 258,
Pincers, smith's, withdrawing a
lance with, 180.
de Pisseleu, Anne, 168.
Plague, cause of, 243.
extent of the, 177.
infection by, 254.
Pare's attack upon, 6, 79.
study of, 73.
treatise on, 77, 113.
Plaintain, juice of, 232.
Plaster, application of, 269, 272.
Plessis le Tours, 74.
Pleural membrane, tuinic from, 223.
Pleurisy, 228.
Plovers, 204.
Podalic version, reference to, 44.
Poisoning, antidote for, 73.
oil as, 65.
by bullets, 248.
by corrosive sublimate, 65.
by drugs, suspicion of, 193.
Poisoning food, because of "Re-
ligion," 88, 109.
in sauces, 111.
manner of avoiding. 111.
of Pope Clement VII, 111.
reported, of Francois II, 110.
treatment for. 111.
Poisons, 110.
antidoted by unicorn's horn, 115.
See al^o Toxicolog}'.
de Poitiers, Diane, 3, 45, 197.
de Poltrot, Jean, 180.
du Pont, 213.
capture of, 219.
Pont Saint Michel, 32, 37, 125.
Ponthieu, I'Hotel, 182.
Poppies as sleep producers, 270.
Portail, Antoine, 66, 73, 122, 245,
258.
Portet, 179.
Posson, Toussaint, amputation per-
formed upon, 141.
Poullet, Daniel, 141.
Practicing medicine in Paris, 43.
Pre aux Clercs, 144'.
Prenatal impressions, belief in, 95.
Priesthood, aids of, 80.
tliieving by, 176.
de Primie, Jeanne, 38.
Jehanne, 39.
Loys, wife of, 39.
Mery, 31.
Probing, 263.
Prognosis of death, 224, 249.
Progress of the royal family through
France, 255.
Propertj' of Pare near Pont Saint
Michael, 8, 38.
Prosector for Sylvius, Pare as, 43.
Prosectors were barber surgeons, 18.
Prostitutes, 213.
as nurses, 215.
Prostration, cause of, 267.
Provence, expedition into, 24.
Prunes, 204, 215, 224.
Ptisans, 105, 224.
Publication of book on the treat-
ment of v.ounds, 41.
of the fourth edition of Park's
works, 120.
of the Latin translation of the
complete works, 120.
Pulmonary vein, 224.
292
INDEX
Puppies as dressing for wounds,
29, 163.
Purgation, 231.
Pus, evacuation of, 268.
of empyemas, 228.
presence of, in wound of Due
d'Auret, 264.
and sanies, evacuation of, 271.
Putrefaction, 137.
from dead bodies, 218.
of bone, 141.
of wounds, 242.
Quack, Spanish, 51.
Quai des Grand Augustines, 32.
Quarantine, advocacy of, 78.
Quartan fever, 245.
Quicksilver, 232.
Rabelais, 2, 32, 90.
Rabouteurs, 16.
Radishes, 204.
de Randan, 198.
"Ranula," 256.
Rasse, Francois, 47, 144.
Rats as food, 205.
Reason, impairment of, 257.
Recrod, Captain, 182.
Rectum, 150.
Relatives of Pare housed near Pont
Saint Michel, 77.
Religion, bearing of language upon,
91.
Pare's, 3, 84.
"The," 80, 87, 88, 89.
Renaud, Antoine, 143.
Respiration, diaphragm as chief
agent of, 223.
difficulty in, 221.
Rest, value of, for ulceration of
leg, 232.
Rheims, 192.
Rhinoceros' tusks as mummy, 114,
119.
Rib, breaking the fifth, 221.
splinter of fourth, 221.
Ribs, breaking of, 227.
Rice, 204.
Rigault, 100.
Ringrave, Captain, 182.
Comte, wound of, 75, 260, 261.
Riolan, Jean, pamphlet of, 53,
140.
de la Riviere, Etienne, 47, 54, 66.
de la Roche-sur-Yon, Prince, 101,
193, 196, 249.
la Rochefoucauld, 198.
Rodolpho, patron of Vidus Vidius,
18.
de Rohan, Monsieur, 39, 42, 45, 168,
170, 173, 174, 182, 183, 184,
186.
Fran9oise, scandal of, 193.
Rondelet, 109.
Rosemary, 268.
Roots, mucilaginous, 222.
Rose-vinegar, 269.
Rose-water, 270.
Roses, conserve of. 111.
oil of, as a medicament, 222.
red, 268.
Rotula (patella) of the knee, 141.
Rouen, 75, 190, 252.
journey to, 248.
siege of, 69, 88,
Rousselet, 144.
Barbe, wife of Didier Martin, 102.
Frangois, 39, 99.
Jacqueline, wife of Pare, 97.
Jacques, 97.
Madame, 102.
de Roye, capture of, 219.
Eleanor, 193.
Rue, leaves of. 111.
Ruelf, 37.
Ruggieri, the astrologer, 113.
Sacrum, nerve descending from, 149.
Saffron, 269.
an ingredient of oxycrate, 222.
Sage, 268.
Saint Andre, Louis of, 188.
Mareschal, 183, 194, 195, 252.
St. Andre des Arts, 32, 102, 104.
marriage at, 84.
Saint Arnold, Abbey of, 210.
Saint Aubin, wounding of Captain,
244.
St. Bartholomew, massacre of. See
Massacre.
Saint Come, two surgeons of, 47.
Saint Denis, Battle of, 74, 116, 159,
257.
horn of, 119.
Saint Denis de France, 190.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fare's oath
at, 70.
INDEX
^93
de Saint Germain, Jean, 104.
de Saint Germain I/Auxerrois, bell
of, as signal, 83.
Saint Jean d'Angely, siege of, 255.
de Saint Jean en Dauphin, 198.
Saint Maigrin, 105.
Saint Nicholas, 168.
Saint Omer, 238.
Saint Pol, Count of, 23.
Saint Quentin, 193, 240.
Battle of, 24, 57, 213.
Saint Severin, marriage at, 84-.
Saint Stephen, loaves of, 205.
Saint Victor, abbey of, 140.
Salmon, 204.
Salt, 204, 268.
for bums, 29.
Sambre, 178.
de Sancerre, le Comte, 183.
Sanguine temperament of Monsieur
de Martigues, 222.
Sanies, evacuation of, 271.
greenish, 263.
draining oflF, 265.
Sardines, 204.
Sarlabous, Captain, 254.
Sauces as possibiltes for poisoning,
111.
for invalid diet, 270.
Sausage, 204.
de Savoi, Due, 3, 52, 57, 220, 221,
225, 227, 229, 230, 237, 240,
241.
Jacques, 99, 193.
Louise, 23.
de Savoie, Charles Emanuel, 100,
213.
Scarifications, 231.
School of Surgery at Paris, 17.
Sciatica, 149.
Science vs. experience, 155.
de Scipieaux, Fran9ois, 194.
Scrofulous sores cured by royal
touch, 110.
Sedan, 186.
Seeds, mucilaginous, and roots, 222.
Seguier, Pierre, 102.
Sequestra in the bone, 265.
Setons, use of, in gunshot wounds,
163.
Setting a leg, broken by canon
shot, 48.
Sex, change of, 95.
Sexual hygiene in Leviticus, 94.
Sforza, Francisco, Duke of Milan,
death of, 23, 158.
Shad, 204.
Siege of Paris, 122, 124.
Sight restored by Jesus Christ, 93.
Simon, Henri, 100.
Skull, wound of, 184, 198.
Sleep produced by artificial rain,
270.
Smallpox, 115, 267.
epidemic, 73.
experiments upon criminals, 64.
treatise on, 77.
Snake bite, 6.
Soissons, bishop of, 33.
Soap, lack of, 215.
Somme, crossing the, 240.
Soporific action of artificial rain,
270.
of the poppy, 270.
Sorcerers, proof of existence of,
94.
Sorrel, 270.
Sorties, making of, 200.
de Souvray, 139.
Spaniard, cruelty of, 210.
Spaniards, 207, 208.
Pare captured by, 50.
Spanish king, succor of, 259.
soldiers, cruelty of, 219.
Spells, use of, 49, 226.
Spinal cord, function of, 257.
Spirits "acquire a bad diathesia,"
267.
Spleen, cautery on, 148.
Splinters of the bone, 264, 271.
Stench from cadavers, 243.
Stimulant for heart, 269.
Stings of venomous beasts, 110.
Stomach, cautery on, 148.
openings in, 148.
Stones in the bladder, specimens of,
96.
Strappado, 150.
Stool, evacuation of blood by, 223.
Strategy of the Due de Guise, 501.
Succubi, 94.
Sully, reference to Pare, 8.
quotation from, 87.
Superstition, example of, 49, 94, d5,
110, 115, 226.
Surgeon at the Hotel Dieu, 20.
294
INDEX
Surgeon-in-ordinary, Par6 ap-
pointed, 192.
Surgeons, Army, 198.
duties of, 16.
of St. Come, ineptitude of, 16.
work of, 19.
of the Emperor, 220.
of the long robe, 15.
Surgery, examples of, amputation,
i39.
arte riot omy, 146.
bandaging, 232.
cauterization, use of, 46, 47,
130, 131, 148, 268.
discussion on, 189.
for empyema, 147.
cruciform incision, 148.
of breast, 148.
of liver and spleen, 148.
cicatrization of ulcer, 234.
cutting for stone, 16.
callous border, 231.
dressing fractures, 19, 66.
ulcer, 233.
incision to evacuate pus, 268.
Ugature, 46, 122, 131, 132, 133,
131, 136, 144.
lithotomy, Colot's performance
of, 12.
operation for bone splinters,
260, 271.
for cataract, 113.
for elbow jointi 261.
for hernia, 16.
for stone, 12.
for swollen breasts, 148.
paracentesis, 148.
setting a limb, 48, 49.
smith's pincers usea to extract
lance head, 43.
tents and setons, use ofy 163,
272.
tieing the veins, 131.
treatrnent for fractures, 16.
trephining a fractured skull, 49.
ustion upon the humerus, 149.
experience in, 151, 152, 153.
discussion on, 131.
Fare's book on, 70, 112.
new edition, 92.
school of, 17.
Surgery and medicine, interrelation-
ship of, 112.
Suze, Pass of, 158, 159.
Swellings, inflammatorj', 256.
Swiss, 161, 252.
Sylvius, 168.
interview with, 41.
Pare as prosector for, 43.
Syncope, 265.
treatment for, 269.
Systole, 221.
absorption of vapors by, 267.
Tagault, Jean, dean of the Faculty,
17, 18, 134.
Xavannes, 9.
Temperament, sanguine, 222.
Tendons, trauma in, 265.
Tents and setons in gunshot
wounds, 163, 221.
of lead cannulas, 272.
Testicles, delayed descent of, 95.
Therapeutics, use of, aegyptiacum,
69, 242, 272.
althea, 271.
antimony, use of, 109, 113.
armeniac, 269.
aromatic compound, 79.
balm for dressing arquebus
wounds, 29.
brandy as a solvent, 271, 272.
calamine, 269.
camomile, 268.
camphor, 269, 270.
ceratum refrigerans, 269.
cheliodonia, 269.
chestnut bark. 269.
cold cream, 269.
conserve of roses. 111.
diachylon, plaster of, 222.
earthworms as wound dressing,
29, 163.
egg dressing for wounds, 27, 163.
222.
emplastrum diacaJcitheos,, 272.
escharotic ointment, 232.
figs, dry. 111.
heart stimulant^ 269.
^enbane, 270.
honey and alum for dressing
wounds, 69.
hyacinth, 119.
lavender, 268.
lead, application of, 232.
litharge, 269, 272.
INDEX
^95
Therapeutics, use of mercurial oint-
ment for syphilis, 96.
mucilaginous roots, 222.
myrtle, 269.
nanvhale teeth, for epilepsy, 119.
nerval herbs, 268.
nightshade, use of, 232.
oak ashes, 268.
oak bark, 269.
oil, 27, 28, 272.
internal administration of. 111.
of elder, for cautery, 162.
of lilies, 29, 163, 271.
of roses, 27, 163, 222.
of Venice, 219.
onions, raw, for burns, 29.
opium, 270.
oxycrate, 222, 232, 269.
oxyrrhodimum, 270.
plaintain, juice of, 232.
poppies, 270.
puppies, 29, 163.
quicksilver, 232.
red ointment, 269.
red roses, 268.
rhinoceros' horn, 119.
rosemary, 268.
rose-vinegar, 269.
rosewater, 270.
rue. 111.
saflFron, 269.
sage, 268.
salt for burns, 29, 268.
seeds, mucilaginous, 222.
sorrel, 270.
theriaca. 111, 269.
treacle, 269.
thjTne, 268.
turpentine, use of, 163.
unguentum aegyptiacum, 232.
commitissae, ingredients of, 269,
desiccativum rubrum, 269.
refrigerans, 269.
unicorn's horn, 119.
verdigris, 232.
Venetian turpentine, 222.
vinegar, 222, 268, 270.
vipers, 269.
water Ulies, 269, 270.
wine. 111.
and brandy as solvents, 268,
272.
yellow of eggs, 222.
Theriaca, ingredients and manufac-
turer of, 73, 79, 111, 162, 269.
Therouenne, 197, 213, 235, 238.
Thionville, 210.
Thorax, 147, 222, 223, 224,
de Thou, 84.
Thyme, 268.
Tioerius, Emperor, 222.
du Tillet, Anne, wife of Etienne
Lallemant, 39.
Marie, 102.
Titus, 207.
Tonsard, Grand Vicar of Notre
Dame, 141.
Toul, 182, 183.
Tour d'Ordre, 179.
Tournahan, 191.
Tours, 74, 258. ,
Toxicology, antidote, 73.
of unicorn's horn, 115.
Bezoar stone as antidote, 109.
corrosive sublimate, 108.
emetics. 111.
oil as antidote, 65.
perfumers as poisoners, 111.
poisoning of Pope Clement VII,
111.
universal antidote, 111.
de Traisnel, Marquis, 197.
Translation, Latin, of Fare's works,
119.
Trauma from "wind" of cannon
shot, 179.
Treachery of the king's groom^ 187.
Treacle, 269.
Treatment by, application of heat,
268.
bandaging, 232.
bleeding, 19, 222, 231.
compresses of oxycrate, 222, 232,
270.
emetics. 111.
enemata. 111.
fomentations, application of, 268.
plaster, application of, 269.
rest, 232.
venesection, 73.
Treatment for contracture, TO.
dislocation, 121, 125.
dressing wounds, 19, 27, 28, 41,
162, 163, 176, 182, 210, 213,
218, 221, 224, 242, 272.
epilepsy with elk's horns, 119.
296
INDEX
Treatment for fractures, 16.
gangrene, 266.
inflammation, 222.
poisoning, 111.
syncope, 269.
ulcerated leg, 231, 233.
wounds, book on, 41.
See also Therapeutics.
Tremor, symptom of, 263, 265.
Transportation of wounded, 210.
Trephining a fractured skull, 49,
198, 242, 248.
of Frangois II, story of, 61.
Triari, dance of Brittany, 170.
de la Trousse, Monsieur, provost of
the King's jail, 65.
Tumors, material on fevers con-
tained in book on, 113.
Tunis, capture of, 158.
Tunny, 204.
Turin, 24, 28, 29, 158, 167.
Turkey, alliance with the Sultan,
of, 158.
Turks, treaty with the, 23,
Turner, 89, 107.
Turnips, 204.
Turpentine for dressing wounds, 27,
69, 163, 222.
Unguentum, aegyptiacum, 233.
commitissae, ingredients of, 269.
desiccativum rubrum, ingredients
of, 269.
refrigerans, 269.
Ulcer, annular, 231.
incurable, 136.
of leg, treatment for, 231, 233.
Ulceration, 265.
of buttocks, 263,
Ulcers, 140.
Unicorn's horn, 115, 116, 119.
discourse on, 114.
Fare's opinion of, 197.
Universite de Paris, appeal to,
106.
Urine, presence of blood in, 223.
des Ursins, Christople Juvenal, 114.
Francois Juvenal, 197.
Ustion on the humerus, 149.
Uterus, incident of the removal of,
122.
Uzes, Duchess of, 139.
de Valois, Marguerite, 73, 83.
Vapors, arising from the blood, 223,
fuliginous, 224.
pressure of, 265.
Varices, cutting of, 134.
Varicose vein, compress on, 232.
ulcer accompanied by, 231,
de Vaudeville, 5'2, 232, 236, 237,
238,
governor of Gravelines, 230.
Vegetables for invalid diet, 270.
Vein, azygos, 228,
emulgent, 228,
mammary, 228.
Veins, tieing, 131,
Vena cava, 224.
de Vendome, Fran9ois, 47, 190, 192,
197, 248.
Venereal disease treated by "Am-
brosia," 105.
scrofula, 110.
Venesection, 73.
Venice, ambassador to, 167.
Ventricle of the brain, pentration
into, 175,
Verdigris, 232,
Verdun, 182, 194, 195.
Vertebrae, 224.
cautery on, 148,
dislocation of, 149,
Vesalius, 41, 43, 58, 112, 133,
Vesical calculus, cases of, 96,
Vespasian, 207.
Vialot, surgeon, apprenticed to,
12.
Viard, Claude, 98, 139, 140, 141,
144.
Vidus Vidius appointed premier
medecin du Roi, 17.
de Vielleville, 194.
de Vigo, John, 69, 133, 162.
gunshot wounds as treated by,
27.
textbook of Jean, 19.
Villaine, castle of, 27, 161.
de Villars, Marquis, 213, 219.
Villaume. 91.
de Villeneuve, Fran?ois, 38,
Vinegar, 232, 268, 270.
as a medicament, 222.
and wine as solvents, 268.
Vineyard at Meudon, 8.
Viper bite, 6, 70,
Vipers, 269.
INDEX
29,7
Vitre, 33, 96, 104.
studying at, 12, 14.
Vitriol, 272.
Vitry-le-Francois, 95.
Volvulus, 150.
Vomiting, symptom of, 263.
de Vousse, Jean Lallemant, Seig-
neur, 102.
Walloon, language of, 195.
Water, straining, 216.
Water lily, 269, 270.
Weapons, kinds of, 200, 205.
arquebus a croc, 206.
battalia, 208.
bee de corbin, 134.
boettes, 205.
bullets, poisoned, 248.
gabions, 206, 254.
grenades, 205, 216.
passevolants, 178.
Whale, 204.
catching, 73.
Whetstone, simile of, 156.
"Whistling" of wind from woimds,
221.
Wine, 111.
as invalid diet, 272.
and brandy as solvents for aegyp-
tiacuni, 242.
and vinegar as solvents, 268, 272.
in pajnnent for services, 196.
use of, 231.
white, as solvent, 268.
Womb, milk evacuation through the,
228.
Woodcoclts, 204.
Wool, use of, 271.
Wormius, Olaus, 119.
Worms, in abscess formation, 242,
256.
use of, in treatment, 163.
Wound infection, cause of, 69.
Wounds, condition of, 242.
dressing of, 19, 27, 28, 41, 162,
163, 176, 182, 210, 213, 218,
221, 224, 242, 272.
publication of book on, 65.
second edition, 45.
Wrestler, death of, 172.
dissection of body of, 41.
Wrestling in Brittany, 41.
Paul B. Hoeber
67-69 East 59th Street
New York
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
R507.P3F21 BOSS
Life and times of Ambroise Pare [1510-15
1 17n DDMM7 t.31S
